Medal of Acorn: Red Ghost
by AxeO'War
Summary: They thought their war was over, but they were wrong. The war has only begun, when a dirty bomb goes off on the border between the Kingdom and its southern neighbor, they soon realized, an enemy long forgotten in time is coming back to settle an old dispute with Harvey Who. An old enemy from the Cold War of 30 years ago, a secret conflict that will never be reveal until now.
1. Prologue

Medal of Acorn: Red Ghost

Cast in order of appearance

Tails-Gene Farber

Sonic-Roger Craig Smith

Sally-Kath Soucie

Harvey Who-Sean Connery

Shard the Metal Sonic-Charlie Sheen

Elias Acorn-Michael Biehn

Larry Lynx-Shia LaBeouf

Leeta and Lyco Wolf-Angelina Jolie

Silver the Hedgehog-Quinton Flynn

Uri Vastizov-Vladimir Makarov

Antoine D'epardieu-Gerard Depardieu

Pierre D'epardieu-Jean Reno

Metal Sonic-Dustin Hoffman

* * *

Prologue

Highway 24, Border checkpoint between Kingdom of Acorn and Columba

August 3rd, 8:15 AM

Weather: Hot and dusty

Situation: An AFO team callsign Hunter is deploy to stop a possible WMD shipment being smuggled through the border.

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 AFO team callsign Hunter (Tails, Waco, Kozak, Feral)

+OPFOR: 1 WMD shipment truck, unknown hostile escorts.

* * *

It's been two months since the events of the Consortium's insurrection, the Kingdom of Acorn suffers a great social-political and military meltdown as the populace demands democracy against the monarch. The Royal Military suffers massive losses of manpower and equipment after the uprising of two homeguard battlegroups at the capital, forcing the military to withdraw most of their forces from abroad back home fearring future terrorist attacks against them at home since their home guard formations have been severely depleted. With most of their vehicles and equipments have been depleted, the Royal Military looks for alternate military contractors from abroad to supplies them with brand new state of the weaponry and vehicles for guerrilla warfare. The Consortium terrorist melt away from major terrorist attacks and commence Guerrilla Warfare with various nations in the third world and the southern neighbor of the Kingdom of Acorn, Columba, hoping to destroy the interests abroad of the Kingdom of Acorn.

News Report: "Hi i'm Sasha Cat of News 11 reporting live from the border southern border between the Kingdom of Acorn and our southern neighbor, the Republic of Columba, which has now turn into a full scale warzone where the rebel faction calls themselves Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Columba or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columba has just initiated a civil war with the corrupt goverment of president Macro De Santa. Although the fighting between the loyalists and rebels have just begun a week ago but violent has spread through out Columba where people are calling for president Macro De Santa to step down from power, refugees on the north of the country are fleeing through highway 24 to the safe areas of the Kingdom of Acorn. King Elias Acorn stated that he is not going to let violent spreads across the border and will do anything neccessary to keep the situation under control."

It was a scorching morning with dust being blowned over the road by the wind, the sun beating down its heat on the people below, across the wide desert, there was only a single sign of civilization, a highway, once a path of trade and connection between the Kingdom of Acorn to the outside world, namely its southern neighbor. Now a sight of mass exodus, as waves upon waves of illegal immigrants fled their country, riddance with civil war, they stop by the border checkpoint waiting for the border guards to check their papers and give the clearance to go through. But while the innocent people are trying to fled to the safety of the Kingdom, a dangerous but invisible threat was tagging along the mass exodus. A white cargo truck with green stripes on its sides was standing along the traffic jam of the refugees, carrying a cargo of explosive porpotion.

While the truck driver was waiting to drive up through the traffic, unbeknown to him, he was being watched, from a sand dune just 500 meters away from the highway, three Mobians were watching the convoy through the scopes of their sniper rifles. "Call your targets, we'll take them all out at once." Said Kozak the Mobian Husky, his teammates line up their crosshairs over the head of their targets, and as the shots are lined up Kozak gave them the go code. "3, 2, 1 mark." And three bullets flies out to their targets and killing the truck driver and his armed guards instantly, splattering blood and splintered glasses all over the driver's seat. "Go go go! Surround the truck and take the package!" Kozak immediately led his teammates storms up to the the highway where civilians were screaming and panicking, hiding in their cars or trying to seek shelters in the border guard's base. "Contact dead ahead! Contact multiple tangoes!" Kozak shouted out targets as armed gunmen protecting the truck suddenly disembarked their vehicles and fired upon the AFO, "Stay low and move cover to cover! Watch your fire around here! There are civies around us!" As Kozak led his team leap frog from one row of cars to the next, the gunmen quickly unveil their secret weapon, an armored SUV armed with a Gatling minigun. "Hunter ground to Hunter air, we got hostile vehicle with mounter HMG ripping us apart, need immediate close air support over!"

"Copy that ground team, we have air support inbound to your help." from the skies on the Kingdom of Acorn side, an UH 80 Ghost Hawk flew over the highway that is now being shoot to pieces, on the starboard side of the sleek stealth utility helicopter, the gunner on its minigun was a yellow fox with twin tails and three pieces of hair sticking out of his forehead, one can easily tell that this is Miles Tails Prower, the best friend of Sonic the Hedgehog. "Target that black SUV with the minigun." The pilot directed Tails to shoot at the black SUV and he does so with a tight controlled burst, he tears the black SUV to shreds with bursts of M134 rounds while avoiding causing unacceptable civilian casaulties. "You're in the clear Kozak, moves to the truck." Tails coordinated his team to moves up as the SUV is shredded to pieces, they gunned down the last gunmen and stack up behind the cargo truck with Tails flying overhead for overwatch. "Alright, opening now, cover me." Kozak opens the doors of the truck and moves in to check the cargo inside. "Overlord, you're getting this?" Kozak asked as he pan the helmet cam around the truck to see a dirty bomb well stacked and well assembled together inside the cargo compartment of the truck.

"Acknowledge Hunter, we're verifying just for sure. But it's looking good. Wait, Predator get out of there!" the sudden panick of the mission commander sent Hunter ground team running away from the truck in panick when they realized that the bomb has already been activated by someone. "Bomb! Bomb! Get clear, move! Go go go!" Kozak and his teammates ran as fast as they can to escape the blast zone but the bomb detonated and wipe out a massive area that's wide as 50 meters in diameter. "Scramble a recovery team now! The whole team is down!" The mission commander shouted over his communication network as a huge cloud of dust rises from the sky and vehicle wreckages falls to the ground and littered all over the area. The only thing that lives from the blast was the UH 80 Ghost Hawk that was carrying Tails. On the border checkpoint, the place was completely descimated with burnt corpses everywhere and and facilities level to the ground.

6 hours later

As the afternoon passed by, goverment agencies were around the area of the blast to clean up the mess left behind while news van from various news agencies were covering the incident to millions of shocked viewers who were still terrified by the terrorist threat that is still fresh in their minds. At the blast site, Mobians wearring HAZMAT suits were cleaning and disinfecting the area, while then intelligent agencies were scavenging for anything that can help them find out who did this attack. But all they found, was a black box, an airline black box goes along with the bomb delivery but thankfully, the blackbox was still intact but what was puzzling the investgators was that why would the terrorist send a blackbox along with their terrorist attack. Their answers soon came when they took the blackbox back to the RIA headquarter, where they put the tape into a cassette player, and press the play the button. "If you can hear this tape Harvey, then you should know that i am offering you a rematch. It's been too long eversince our last met, 30 years ago. But we are not getting any younger, better finish our feud before we kick the can." It was male voice with Russian accent, and hearring the voice mentioned the name Harvey causes the RIA chief of investigation, Geoffrey St John the skunk to concerns very much about the terrorist's agenda.

At Harvey's house, the old owl was enjoying his tea and watching the live news from the border with great concern, at first he thought it was just another terrorist attack. But those thoughts were soon swept away when a telephone rang. "Harvey manor. Harvey is speaking." the owl picked up the phone and begins the conversaiton. "Mr Who, it's Geoffrey, i think we have a situation in our hands. A blackbox was recover at the blast site but it sounds like the box was containing a message meant for you." Harvey was curious and skeptical at Geoffrey's sudden report and he inquired to know more. "What kind of message?" he asked, "Not much that we can tell about it. But it mentions something about an old acquaintance of yours 30 years ago and something about rematch. Whoever made this tape he has a Russian accent in it." As Geoffrey just barely completed his mentioning of the Russian accent, Harvey was silent right away as if he saw a ghost. "Geoffrey, this is something i need to deal with personally. But i'm gonna need you to gather a team for me. I need you to pick up the individuals i need." and so Harvey listed out the team members that he needs to Geoffrey who then sends out convoys of MRAP vehicles and went to pick up the people Harvey needs.

30 minutes later, Sir Charles Hedgehog lab, New Mobotropolis

Inside the high tech lab of Sir Charles Hedgehog, a revolutionary experiment was being conducted, there in the lab, sir Charles was putting together components for a machine that can undo his infamous creation for the first time ever, the technology to change robots into Mobians was possible, the De-Roboticizer. A device that looks like the Roboticizer but works with a completely different concept. When Sir Charles was sure that all of the component of his machine's experimental prototype was ready, he calls in his volunteer test subject, "Alright Shard, you can come in now! NICOLE keeps power function and monitor the vitals of Shard."; "Understood sir Charles." As Shard the Metal Sonic walks into the machine's tube, he nervously tried his best to stand still inside the machine as Sir Charles began to activates its operation. "De-Roboticized in three, two, one. And go!" As the machine starts up a huge lighting moving vertically from Shard's feet up to his legs then to his abdonment and rise up to the robot's head. It covers him completely and shines a blinding white light throughout the room. It finally dies down only seconds away leaving an organic hedgehog inside the tube who was black with yellow stripes on his body, he was wearring a pair of black sneakers with yellow stripes on it, on his neck was a necklace with a green emerald hanging on it. As Shard opens his eyes, the pupils are now green as the emerald on his neck.

"Oh my god! I can't believe it, i'm a real hedgehog!" Shard excited and jolt at the very of sight of his organic body, the touch, the smell, the colors of the world around him were all too much for him to describe by words alone. "Congratulation sir Charles! I think you have changed the world once again." NICOLE gave blessings to sir Charles just as she ran over to hug Shard the Hedgehog, her husband looks like Sonic only with straighten out quills instead of curve in ones. But as they celebrate the excitement of sir Charles's successful invention, the sound of vehicles stopping in front of the lab signals them something is up. Sir Charles and the others saw a group three Mobians in Black wearring shades walking into the lab carrying with them some papers of great importance, "Who are you people?" Sir Charles asked worriedly at the uninvited guests. "Sir CHarles Hedgehog, we need you and your people here to come with us. It's an emergency. We'll brief on the way, it's the matter of national security that requires your special attention." Then the MIBs quickly hustle Sir Charles, NICOLE and Shard out to their convoy and drove away to a secluded location outside of the city.

Fort Blazkowicz, somewhere outside of the city limits.

At Fort Blazkowicz, a top secret military base meant to train the Royal Military's next generation Special Operation Forces, Shard and his friends were soon reunited with their other long time friends such as Silver the Hedgehog, the wolfpack twin sisters Leeta and Lyco, Larry Lynx, but sadly, Elias Acorn can't come to the scene due to his position as a king, they were being rounded up into a hangar where they met their mission handler Harvey Who the Owl, who begins his briefing of the situation and why they are needed to be at Fort Blazkowicz.

"Let me say that it's good to see you all here today for a reunion. Two months ago we tookdown what arguably the world's most dangerous terrorist ever whose name will be kept anonymous for national security reason. However i'm afraid we are facing an even worst threat, at 8:15 this morning, an AFO team led Tails managed to stop a shipment of WMD across the border, however it turns out to be a trap. The dirty bomb inside the delivery truck exploded and kill three out of four members of the AFO team and devestated the entire border checkpoint, only Tails survive and he is now in the care of Sonic and Sally and his family. Among the things we found at the blast zone was a black box use exclusively in airliners. The tape and its content have been analyzed as a challenge to us and us alone. I guess by now you'd know that we need to hit this threat hard, fast and hit them where they hurt the most. Our mission will commence within 3 hours, until then i suggest you all get yourselves ready up. Dismissed!" When Harvey finished the briefing, everyone were filled with worried but sometimes some joy to be working with each other again, but the thing that they worried about the most was who is challenging them.


	2. Chapter 1: Hola gringo

Chapter 1: Hola gringo

Ciudad Santa Liberta, Republica de Columba

August 4th, 13:45

Weather: Sunny day, low wind

Situation: The reassembled Knothole Force is deploy for a snatch and grab operation on an high value individual from a panick room in the Kingdom of Acorn's Embassy building.

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 Tier-1 AFO team callsign Ghost, 1 UH 80 Ghost Hawk chopper

+OPFOR: 1 Motorized Infantry Battalion

Harvey's briefing: First intel from Geoffrey St John is hard and clear, our bomb maker confessed himself just two days prior to the attack on the border, he's holding up inside a panick room in the Kingdom's embassy building in the capital city of Ciudad Santa Liberta, and we need him out alive. First order of business is to get into the city, which, is now a warzone between the loyalists and the rebels. what we know so far is that sporadic fighting is everywhere and the city's various elevation meant that ambushes can come from any corner and any location at anytime. The loyalist can't keep the situation under control at any other part of the city, even our own embassy's building security, that's why we have to do this quick and clean and by the book. You guys will be rope in at the El Grando de Plaza square then move to the embassy from there, be advised that hostiles have all kinds of resistances waiting for you and unfortunately we have visual confirmed that they have MRAP vehicles with remote control turrets and automatic sentry guns at checkpoints. So be ready and keep your wips about you. Now good luck and good hunting.

Chuck's armory update: You need to know what's up ahead of you to plan your assault, take a quadrotor drone with you Shard, once deploy you can remote control it to scout out terrain and spot the biggest threat to you and your teammates. Also bring along a PDA to hack those sentry turrets, the PDA is your most important tool since it can control the quadrotor drone. Clearring through urban checkpoints mean that you need to use smoke covers, take smoke grenades with you to blind enemies behind cover then flank around them. Also bring along some firepower to destroy solid covers, i recommend my latest C6 Surface Destruction Explosive charges, they can be deploy from your own firearms like shooting a bullet before being detonated like a conventional C4 charge.

(Author's note: Ciudad Santa Liberta is modeled after Mexico City)

* * *

As the UH 80 Ghost Hawk helicopter flies through the skies of Ciudad Santa Liberta, its shadow is being reflected by the sunlight on the various skyscrappers, inside the passenger seats, there were Silver, Shard and Larry Lynx sitting next to each other wearring standard issue military combat uniforms with their helmets on, goggles covering their eys and weapons are at the ready. To Larry and Silver, if they dies their comrades would bury their bodies for them, since they have no family nor home to return to, but to the recently organic Shard the Hedgehog, he still has someone waiting for him back home, his wife, NICOLE. He holds a picture of NICOLE and him at their wedding just two months ago firmly in his hand. He look at her face, his robotic face at the wedding, he prays that he would still be alive, to come back home, to be with her when she is most needed like they have pledged before they are pronounce "Compatible Hardwares" by the reverend. He close his eyes and and gave the photo a kiss before putting it back into his safest pocket. "Don't worry about her Shard, you'll get home safe and sound don't worry." silver reassure his trustest teammate and gave Shard a pat on his back. "Easy for you to say. You're still single and you don't even plan to have kids in the future!" Shard retorded Silver's reassurance but just before they can escelate their argument, a sudden hiss of a rocket flew pass the helicopter, the red alarm barring with red lights bouncing around the helo interior.

"Contact we have hostiles on the roof, enemy foot mobiles with RPGs. I need some guys on the minigun now! Merde! (Shit!)" the French coyote pilot Pierre Depardieu, cousin of Antoine Depardieu shouted and cursed at the sudden ambush by the rebels in the city, Silver quickly ran to the minigun on the side of the chopper and rain down bullets, firing hails of 7.62mm bullets on the enemiese on the rooftops, Silver suppressed the infantry before switching his attention to the more dangerous ones such as AA specialist who wields Titan AA missile launchers and RPG runners on the rooftops. "This LZ is too hot, take us to that park over there!" Silver pointed out a park near the square, where Pierre flew over head only to find a convoy of two hostile trucks carrying two full squads of infantries, Silver continously pours down bullets on them until they are all dead and the trucks that were carrying them were nothing more than burning wreckages. "Alright dropping ropes now, good luck down there. I'll be back to pick you up once you got the HVI." As the Silver's team roped down to the streets below, Pierre began to make preparation to fly on an orbiting course and wait until his comrades call upon him for extraction and he hope that when extract they have achieve the highest completetion status of the mission.

On the streets below, Silver and his teammates move along the emptied streets to the alley nearby, the park next to them still have hats and left behind belongings of civilians and mariachi dancers hastily ran for shelters in the midst of the fighting. "Get into cover guys. (Silver peeks around the corner and sees no hostiles) Clear, Shard, Larry move up." Silver's teammates quickly dash toward the building in front of them then stick into the walls to find cover and plan their next move, Shard covers the path lead to the road and Larry on his six, the white hedgehog quickly moves up and covers the direction that Shard was covering. "Deploy the drone, that should give us a better view." Shard heed Silver's command and threw up the drone, the quadrotor drone immediately extend its rotors and flew up to flight altitude, Shard uses his PDA to command the drone flew over to the intersection ahead for recon and through it he saw a group of hostile rebels carrying standard issue G36K assault rifles, HK 21 LMG and other weapons, they set up a road block to prevent anyone from reaching the square where the embassy is located. "I count 6 hostiles, they are armed and don't know we're here yet." Shard relay the intel to Silver and Larry's PDAs and they began their move to engage the checkpoint.

Shard led Larry moves up onto the corner of the building they were hiding to get ready for combat, Silver sneaks up on the flipped bus wreckage and sets up his line of fire on an unsuspecting rebel, Larry then follows Silver and covers Silver's back and set up his own line of fire. When all three of their targets are in sight and ready to kill, Shard gave the signal to fire their weapons. "3, 2, 1, mark." When three bad guys were down for the count, the other rebels shrugged at the sudden intrusion, they dived for cover behind the barriers they have set up and return fire wildly at the general direction of where their attackers is thought to be. "Open fire! Engage at will! Shard Larry, you two distract them, i'll flank around and finish them off."; "Roger that! Just do it fast!" Shard and Larry focus their fires onto the barriers which is being chipped away bits after bits by the gun shots, the rebels hiding behind the barriers were shooting back with their LMG hoping to pin down the two Mobians, but unbeknown to them, Silver has flanked their position and gave them a burst of bullets from Silver's rifle.

"Clear move up, rally on me at those pillars." As Silver and his teammates moves to the pillars in front of a building to seek cover, a sudden high caliber bullet whisped pass them, oblilerating a quarter of a concrete pillar off. "Damn it! Hostile sniper on that bell tower! In the cathedral at twelve o' clock!" Seeing the enemy sniper was using a 50 caliber Lynx sniper rifle, capable of piercing through the armor hull of a Humvee, Larry brings up his counter snipe solution, an M320 LRR Sniper Rifle. He adjusted his win, range, and overall sniping information and pulls the trigger, letting the bullet flies straight to the sniper's head, piercing through the scope lenses and killing the sniper instantly. "Sniper is KIA!" Larry shouted as he moves with Shard to a van parked next to the square and use it as a base of fire at the enemy's encampment. Silver moves to a newspaper stand in front of Larry and Shard and hides behind it, there the white hedgehog returns fire at those who are unfortunate enough to be caught in his fire. "Hostile auto turrets shooting at us! Shard think you can hack it?"Larry staying down behind the van and asked his friend for help.

"I'm working on it! You can't rush perfection Joker! And got it!" Shard quickly hack and reprogrammed the sentry turret in the enemy's encampment, the turret suddenly cease fire at Silver and his teammates then it turns to shoot up the other rebels in the encampement in its sight. Eventually the three Mobians overcame the defenders and ransacked the camp, inside they found intel maps of hostile positions and the location of the embassy building, taking the intel with them, they move out to the embassy building, avoiding patrols and confrontations with the rebels. When they came to a large square with a huge monument in the center (Author's note: This location is based off of the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City.) They can see the embassy building just across the monument. "Overlord, this is Ghost lead, we got the target building in our sight, moving to secure HVI now over."; "Affirmative Ghost lead, wait hold one, we're monitoring unknown radio traffic at this time stand by out. Ghosts we have mortars inbound to the embassy get clear!" When Harvey shouted out on comms there were sounds of mortar shells raining from the sky, follow by three explosions at the embassy building, blowing up some parts of the building and bust down the gates along with the M113 that was being used by embassy troops.

"Fucking hell! Ghost lead to Overlord, somebody just shell the embassy building! We're moving to secure the HVI right now!" Silver and his team sprinted right toward the embassy moving through the bombed out building to find the panick room on the second floor is still intact and the HVI is still alive but nearly the whole building is gone, with the front of the embassy was completely obliterated with bricks and debris fell to the ground leaving dust settles every where on the ground and fires burning on the ground and smoke rises from the sight of destruction. "Heads up Ghost! It's the Dark Egg Legion of Lord Hood, Eggman has sent the cobra to recover the HVI, we don't know why but you need to hold your ground. I'm scrambling CAS for you now ETA, 3 minutes."; "Affirmative Overlord, we'll hold them off for as long as we can. Take up defensive positions and dig in!" As Silver's team and two remaining soldiers guarding the embassy assembled their fighting positions, Lord Hood's troops quickly rolls in, first came huge waves of infantries, supported by Scorpion MRAPs, Silver quickly manned an M2 Browning HMG on tripod behind a sandbag cover position, mowing down as much hostiles as he can before they overrun the defenders. Shard and Larry along with the two remaining embassy troops stem back waves upon waves of assaults by the enemy forces but their situation was growing desperate, they were just 5 against what appears to be a small army of battalion or regimental size.

From afar, Lord Hood was watching the battle and the legionized cobra was unhappy at the sluggish assault of his infantries, with som many squads and platoons yet they couldn't overcome a handful of defenders. Watching through his binoculars, he saw the sight of impossibility, with only three Mobians wearring Special Ops uniforms and two embassy guards desperately holding out against his troops, but the D.E.L can't breakthrough their defensive lines. "Get our tanks roll in now! I need to finish them off 3 minutes ago!" Lord Hood shouted to his C2 operators as they relay the orders to roll in the MBTs, as Lord Hood's tanks began to roll in to surround the embassy from around the monument, the defenders suddenly received an angel's wings. "Ghost leader this is Reaper 3-1, flight of two F35 Thunderbolt, orbiting in the AO, holding pattern at Delta Sierra Oscar 2. Carrying two JDAMs and 4 maverick missiles over." The captain of the jets's arrival was a god send for Silver and his team, the white hedgehog then brings up his SOLFLAM and dials in targets for the squadron of F35s. "Reaper 3-1, i need you to target two enemy heavy armors target will be illuminates by lasers over."; "Solid copy Ghost lead, rolling in now, Reaper flight out." Silver then use his SOLFLAM to paint the tanks with lasers when F35s overhead flew down from the sky and shoot the tanks up with their Maverick missiles destroying both armors. Lord Hood's ground troops saw the sudden attack of the overwhelming air power meant that they are next on the kill list. So they pop smoke and retreat leaving the battle at once.

Lord Hood was extremely furious about the sudden defeat, he saw his men runaway like cowards and was compell to retreat with his men after all, he need to be with them so he can punish them. While then back at the embassy the three mobians emerged from their hiding spots seeing nothing in front of them but carnages, realised that their enemies are all gone, they pick up the HVI from the panick room and moves out to Pierre Depardieu's Ghost Hawk chopper which was hovering above ground at that moment. "Overlord, Ghost team have captured the HVI and we're moving out now."; "Roger that Ghost lead, excellent job, let's hope the HVI can tell us why does Eggman wants him as well as we do."


	3. Chapter 2: The gulag

Chapter 2: The gulag

Krasnanoye Detention Camp, USSR's Far East, the Kamchatka penisula

August 6th, 14:5

Weather: Cold with strong breeze

Situation: Knothole Force regroup with their GUN's SOCOM allies to mount a prison break for a subject who knew the person stand behind the border bombing.

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 Tier-1 AFO team callsign Ghost, 2 SEAL Teams

+OPFOR: Local garrisoned forces, heavy SAM protection detected

Commander Tower's briefing: Alright men listen up, we're only two hours away from mission deployment so i want you to listen up real closely, our objective is to rescue a prisoner with designation prisoner 666, he's currently being held in this detention camp. Our presence in here in this region of the USSR's Far East is to be kept in the dark so i want all of you to go by the book. We have confirmed intel from the captured bomb maker that the men stands behind the border bombing of the Kingdom of Acorn is called the Red Ghost, a branch of the Consortium operating in the former Soviet Union and its backyards, their leader is a ring of high ranking military officials of the old USSR namely one Uri Vastizov, head of the State Security and master of espionage warfare. The enemy defences around the this prison are Tunguska air defense platform, Panshir SHORAD system for close in defences, also the towers of the prison's medieval castle walls have SAM launchers but they are all wired to a single radar trailer. Phase one is conducting Electronic Suppression Procedure, our Wild Weasel will destroy the enemy's air defence and open up an air corridor for our assault forces to get through. Second is the ground assault, our special ops teams will be deployed via the MH9 Humming Birds on the prison's yard then word their way down to find the prisoner. Mission time must be done within 2 hours sweep of the building. Good luck and god speed.

Chuck's armory update: Take a MK14 EBR fitted it with a sniper scope, it'll come in handy on the Humming Bird to take out foot mobiles on the SAM towers and defence platform. Once inside the prison you'll be fighting at CQB distances, take the SEAL's MP5N and fitted it with armor piercing rounds, i also reccommended assault or auto shotguns. Also bring along Flashbang and Concussion grenades it will come in handy when you're trying to the prisoner alive. Bring along some breaching charges to blows through wall should you need it since this building's walls are rather old and run down, they're weak enough to blow through.

* * *

The icy cold water of the Sea of Mobian matches only by the artic winter in the Kamchatka Penisula, everywhere there was a shroud of snow white mist hiding everything except for those that are within one's sight. The fleet of the GUN Navy moves silently through the water, closing into striking distance to the Krasnanoye Detention Camp, despite the snow white mist and the the possibilities of a snow storm, visibility was still clear enough for the fleet to conduct air strikes. On the main carrier of the fleet, EA 6B Prowler electronic warfare aircrafts were lining up to the catapults of the ship, three aircrafts were going into position waiting for the order to take off. There were two Prowlers on the forward catapults, while the one on the angle catapult was a F4G Wild Weasel electronic warfare aircraft. "Big Cat this is Thunder flight lead, we're set and ready to go. Over." The pilot of the lead Prowler said on comms to flight control. "Roger that Thunder flight lead. You're clear for take off, happy hunting." The EW jets then rev up their engines and one by one, they were pushed by the catapults like being pushed by the angels to the edge of the carrier's limited runway and take off right away. As the three jets assembled together up in the sky they flew toward the first waypoint on their TACNAV system. "Thunder 6, this is Overlord, egress to waypoint Alpha. Remember to keep yourself at 15000 feet above sea levels until you've reached preset combat destination." Commander Towers commanded the EW jets from the war room of his carrier, he looks at the green holographic battle map constantly being updated in real time.

As the jets flew to their waypoint, maintaining their altitude to avoid radar detection, once the sight of land is in their visual, they raise their altitude up and increase their cruising speed, the Electronic Warfare Officers then armed their Snake eye missiles and the Shrike missiles to attack AA defenses. "Targets in scope. Locking targets. Missiles are armed, safeties off. Fire!" The EWOs launches the Anti Radar missiles while the pilots were keeping their aircrafts in relative safety distances. As the missiles flew to their targets, the radar operators and the air defence forces weren't expecting any kind of attack into their positions, but all that soon change when some of them saw green blips closing in on their postions, they dropped their coffee and their borsche meals and rushed to operates their AA weapons. But it was too late, the missiles struck their targets and obliterated the air defences with huge explosions. "Overlord, this is Thunder Flight. All targets are confirmed smoke. We're RTB over."; "Solid copy Thunder Actual, all callsigns on this net this is Overlord, White Sword. Repeat White Sword is a go! God speed to you all." On the escort carrier's flight deck, 4 MH9 Humming Birds with platforms to sit on for the strike team members were warming up their engines and were waiting for their passengers to load up. Soon the Navy SEALs and the Knothole Force Tier 1 teams were loading up onto the Humming Birds and begins their flight to the prison.

"Promise me this Ace, if i don't make it through this whole shit. Tell NICOLE, you tell her, i really love her, more than anything else on this planet." Shard said to Silver in a rather nervous tone, worried about his fate. Silver reassure Shard firmly like brothers in arms, "You tell her that yourself. No one is going to die on my watch! Give me a ball!" Silver and Shard then gave each other a fist and get ready for the mission to rescue a prisoner that they don't even know his face. "Approaching target, 30 seconds out." The pilot, Pierre Depardieu said on his comms to as he raises the altitude of his Humming Bird up at around the prison's walls. "All snipers this is Ace, weapons free. Engage your targets." The snipers on the Humming Bird quickly brings up their sniper rifles and loaded their weapons then take aims at their targets, giving the guard towers pot shots. Then the choppers flew down to the helipad of the and unload the men to engage the prison guards. "Push through to the entrance to the inner compound!" Silver led his team of five Mobians fighting through the courtyard mowing down the prison guards one after another. Then they proceeds down to the prison's security room inside a huge cylindrical structure with multiple levels and prison cells.

"Jack i need you to hack into the prison's security system we can use it to find prisoner 666!" Silver gave Shard a PDA to connect into the prison's network hub. "Copy that, just need someone to watch my back!" Shad replied then connect the PDA into the computer's hub then uses his knowledge of computer and with the help of Sir Charles from the fleet, Shard hacks through the prison's system and look for notes and logs about prisoner 666. "Man this was easier when i was still a robot. Got it! Prisoner 666 has been transferred to the East Wing! You can take a short cut through the armory!" When Silver heard Shard's instruction, he led his team down to the armory where in all of sudden the doors of the armory slams close, seal up Silver and his teammates inside. "Jack, open the door!" Silver shouted on his comms calling for his teammates technical assistance, "They've locked me out of the system. I'm running a bypass to open the door.!" As Shard was doing his best to help, his teammates were being pinned down by the enemy combatants as they shoot the armory from all sides. "Look out Ace!" Leeta quickly shoves Silver down behind a bulletproof crate she brought up a riot shield to protect Silver with. "Thanks Leeta, i could have been done for if it weren't for you." he thanked the female wolf with a little vigor of love in his voice. "That's nice Silver but keep your heads down for now." She gave him her remarks and keeps him behind her riot shield.

"Got it! Doors are open!" Shard cheers as his bypass was successful, the doors in the armory were opened and Silver led his teammates out to face the prison guards, using their riot shields to bash their enemies to death with extreme prejudice. They came to the end of the hallway where Silver his three teammates rappel down to the lower level. "Okay guys, you're heading towards the solitary confinement areas, the powers to that section is down and out so i recommend using your NODs." When the Mobians have reached the ground of the lower level, Silver and his teammates switches to their night vision goggles to compensate the darkness of the lower levels. "Good thing i'm a lynx, i don't need night vision goggles to see in the dark." Larry was thankful of his being as a lynx, but as they pushed to a a corridor with dark prison cells, the prison guards came out to greet them and unleashed a hale of bullets on them, "Frag out!" Lyco tossed out a frag grenade as her sister and friends duck behind cover, the frag exploded in the darkness wiping out the guards and decimates half of the hallway.

As the dust settle down, they move up to a room bathroom where there is a huge hole in the end of the hallway. Following their instincts, they jumped down the hole to an old sewer and find their way through the cafeteria of the East Wing. "I've detected two heat signatures in the next room one of them should be prisoner 666." Leet and Lyco then plants demolition charges on the wall and stacked up with Silver and Larry. Once they have detonated the charge, they stormed the room to see a prison guard being choked to death by what appears to be a blue, metallic hedgehog. When the strange hedgehog saw them, he grabs the AK12 rifle of the guard points at the sudden intruders. "Oh my god! It's Metal Sonic!" They were all shocked to see Metal Sonic as prisoner 666 of the prison. "Drop that weapon, you're coming with us." Silver attempted to persuade the robotic hedgehog, but Metal Sonic was distrustful with Silver. "Why should i follow my enemies? You would most likely to try and reprogram me to become your mindless slave." The robot's monotone voice was clearly showing hatred and distrust that required times to built cooperation between the two. But before they can argue any further, the prison began to crumble, with explosions are being set off at every corner. "Overlord! This is Ghost leader, we need SPIE rig extraction ASAP!" Silver shouted on comms and he receive the extraction that he needs. "Copy that Ghost team, SPIE rig on the way! Out."

From a hole created by a naval bombardment shell in the cafeteria, the SPIE rig cable was thrown down into the cafeteria the five Mobians and a robot ran to the SPIE rig cable and hook themselves up and let an MH53 helicopter pull them up into the air, while the prison was being bombarded to smithereens by the GUN's fleet and airstrikes. But one thing is for sure to the Knothole Force and the GUN's Task Force in the area, mission accomplished.


	4. Chapter 3: Brothers in arms

Chapter 3: Brothers in arms

GUN Naval Special Warfare Task Force, Carrier Liberator, Mediterranean Sea

Grid: 0985761254201

August 7th, 9AM

Weather: Sunny, windy

Situation: R and R

Force Estimation:

none

Commander Tower's briefing: We made quite a show gentlemen, that little firework display won't be missed by the Udaloyan, they'll search and find out as much as they can from ground zero of the prison. We have to make a dash back to the Mediterranean Sea, our AO to avoid being caught by the naval patrols. Metal Sonic will stay with our Knothole Force allies and they'll find away to get high priority intel out of that robot, as soon as we know what the Red Ghost are upto, especially Uri Vastizov's plan we'll move in to stop Uri.

* * *

Under the warm sunshine of the Mediterranean sea, the GUN fleet moars just off the gulf of Spadonia with standby order to guard the United Federation's Mediterranean territory from terrorist attack. The wind blew by with a soft breeze, giving the crew and servicemen a perfect moment for some R&amp;R. Some of the men decided to take a break and play football on the flight deck of the carrier, while others tend to their businesses, fishing and sunbathing and listening to music are also favorite activities. The Knothole Force took this rare moment of calm to rest and rready themselves for the battles to come, with Shard and sir Charles are working hard on Metal Sonic's CPU, trying to reprogram the robot to be free minded like Shard the Hedgehog. Silver on the other hand was keeping himself in shape by doing some push ups in his cabin, he was pushing hard, into the maximum level, over 40 times, his face was sweating, his fur were wet with his sweat, as he continues to push himself. Until someone opens the door to his cabin, at first he thought it was either Shard or Larry coming back from their works but no, it was a female Mobian wolf wearring green summer leotard with blue eyes and brown hair and pink fur. It was Leeta Wolf coming in through the door to see him, Silver jaw dropped at the sight of her and drop completely to the floor.

The thud sounded off was follow by Leeta ran to pick up Silver and lifted him back up to his feet. "You're alright Silver?" she kindly asked him as she helps him back up, they stares into each other eyes in a moment, the world was revolving around them, time seems to froze as the two would be lover couldn't resist each other gazes. "Hey, Leeta, you know i always have something i really want to...i mean...i need to...t...to tell you." Silver nervously stuttered in front of Leeta a bad move for someone who took all kinds of punishment from the enemies but still live to tell the tale, only to stuttered in front of a girl. "What is it Silver? Is it about...the thing i did for you back in that prison?" Leeta teases Silver as she lean closer, forcing Silver to shunned, he back away a little as she come closer and closer to him and finally poke his grape like nose.

"Ouch! Wait, you're saying, you knew what i wanna say?" He was confused at Leeta's knowledge on what was in his mind as she push him down on his bunk bed. "That's right pretty boy. Why hide, when you can get it on full swing?" She gave him a sly grin as she kneel on top of him, her hands rub his furry chest and care his cheek as she lay down and gave him a passionate kiss on his lips. He closed his eyes and thinks, "Hey, this isn't so bad after all." he just lay there letting her kiss his lips and ran her hand around his sides. He cursed the air whenever their lips parted, then she traced her tongue down to his neck and kissing his chests causing him to jolt in joy and pleasure.

"Yes yes! Let's go for it Leeta! You're the queen of this game!" Silver excited as she took off her clothings slowly letting him to see her treasures and the rest of her pink furry body, then they go harder and harder letting each other's emotion flows freely like eagles soars through the endless sky. But while lust and pleasure were flowing in this cabin, a completely different set of emotion was flowing in another, in Harvey Who's quarter of the ship, he was working through the paper and documents of intel gathered by Geoffrey St John, sent to him via secured channel of communication. He was frustrated, looking carefully at every single pages at the one particular name, Uri Vastizov, it was name that haunts for nearly his whole life. For 30 years it still haunts him.

It all started back in the Cold War, when the Kingdom of Acorn was busy fighting with the Overlanders a deadly, silent threat to both was preparing itself to proclaim the position of superpower on Mobius, the USSR, a run of the mill Communist state with everything you could expect from previous Communist states in the world. They were preparing a massive army, training its troops in warfare beyond the compensation of the Mobians. The threat was even closer to home as rumors of sleepers and double agents have infiltrated the society of the Kingdom. Harvey was just a young lad hired by the newly founded Royal Intelligent Agency for one purpose, infiltrate the USSR's KGB headquarter and obtained the list of all the enemy agents operating in homeland. And he did what he was told to do, Harvey managed to obtained the list but at the price of his first and only love one, his new found love, Natasha Ludovka, her name sent a chill up his spine as he still remembers how did she die at Vastizov's hand. It makes him shed tears from his eyes despite his best effort to hold it in. "Vastizov, i will make you pay. Our feud will be settle, once and for all." Harvey growled in his room, as he squeeze the his first photo of Vastizov in anger.

Fate would soon give Harvey the chance for payback, just soon enough, but until then, he would have to wait, but while Harvey waits, the answer to what was Vastizov plan is being revealed. Down in the technical hanger, sir Charles and Shard were working hard at Metal Sonic's processor to squeeze intel out of him. The blue robotic hedgehog was standing on a small mech pad while the plate that covers his primary access port in the back of his head was being removed by Shard, Metal Sonic was still online but he was willingly stand still to let the friendly hedgehog scientist to do his job and his organic "Brother" was tending to wiring and connection into his CPU. "There you go uncle Chuck, USB wire is connected." Shard said just as he was done with connecting with the USB wire with sir Charles's laptop. "Thanks son, now to tend to your brother's processor. Don't worry it's not going to overload him or something. Now then Metal Sonic, what do you know about Uri Vastizov's plan?" Sir Charles asked as he works on his laptop to gather intel on Uri Vastizov from Metal Sonic's CPU. "Subject Vastizov is planning for an uprising. The details on how he would execute his plan is in my coded data number: 43265191." The robotic hedgehog simply replied in a monotone voice, sir Charles find it was easy to get the intel from Metal Sonic's CPU since the robot hedgehog is being rather cooperative at the moment.

"What exactly is his plan to revolt brother?" Shard asked his metallic brother who turns his red eyes to see Shard's own green eyes. "He and his Red Ghost are planning to manipulate the Udaloyan Federation to invade and annex regions of the former USSR, then discredit the goverment in a disastrous occupation, thus weakening Moskarv's ability to hold on to the public opinion and give him the chance for launching a coup." Metal Sonic's monotone voice reveals the full grim scope of Uri Vastizov's plan they now know that time is short and Uri has already made his moves. As sir Charles founds details of Uri's accomplishments so far, he had already manipulated the current goverment of the Udaloyan Federation to annex regions in Central Yurashia, the Ukraine and Belarus. His next target is the Cascarus mountains, namely a small country named Zagoria. "What about Eggman? What is have to do in all of this?"

Shard asked another question, which, also received a cold and detailed answer from Metal Sonic, "Dr Eggman was in conflict with the Consortium some months ago as they threatens his territories and his Eggman Empire. Now the doctor Eggman is considered to be out of the game. Eggman has no forces to fight neither the Consortium nor the Red Ghost in his eastern Eurish territories." Realizing how bad the situation has deteriorated, Sir Charles and Shard quickly download as many important files from Metal Sonic as possible while avoid overloading his processor. "All files downloaded, you know what brother, you're not so bad like some people think you are." Shard commented while giving Metal Sonic a pat on his shoulder, "One act of good will can't erase my guilty past, it would take more than this one time to set me free from Eggman's shadow." Metal Sonic turns his head over to Shard with a stern look, Shard was thinking something that might help Metal Sonic. "Perhaps you can join us. Give your service to a true breed of warriors would change your life bro."; "Offer accepted, brother." Metal Sonic and Shard gave each other a headbutt in a brotherly style as Shard welcomes the new blood or in this case new metal into the Knothole Force.


	5. Chapter 4: Wild Heart

Chapter 4: Wild heart

Somewhere in the Zagoria's northern mountain, Democratic Republic of Zagoria, Cascarus Mountains

August 19th, 11:35 AM

Grid: 0934561289

Situation: Knothole Force has been deployed to neutralize a group of pro Udaloyan rebels in the troubled country of Zagoria and rescue an HVI known as Papashvili who knows the current situation.

Weather: Clear

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 Tier-1 Team callsign Ghost

+OPFOR: 1 Company size militia encampment.

Harvey's Briefing: Welcome to Zagoria gentlemen. I hope you have some shut eyes on the voyage from Spadonia to Zagoria because we're gonna have a lot of works here. Eversince the USSR Broke up some 15 years ago, conflicts between the goverment of Zagoria and the separatist region of Akhanizia have been sporadic. Normally the rebels there would only engage in skirmishes with the goverment troops, however, recent attacks have escelated to the brink of civil war between the two. High command believes that the Red Ghost is manipulating Moskarv engineer this crisis as an excuse to step in a annex the whole region. And we are here to stop that, by cutting off the leg of one of the revolution before it even begins. Our first priority is to destroy a rebel encampment in the mountainous region that should weakened their supplies of manpower and base of operation. There are multiple patrols throughout this area and an encampment to the east of the mountain, once you have destroyed the camp, move up to the nearby cave system and wipe out anyone inside. Also extract a High Value Individual inside the cave system who goes by the name, Boris Papashvili, an old friend of my back in the Cold War. If someone knows the current situation development then that's him. So go get our men and get as much intel from him as possible.

Chuck's armory update: You're going up against the enemies from long range, i think you should bring along the M110 sniper rifle with suppressed muzzle. Also bring along the M4 Carbine for CQB encounter in the cave. I've managed to intergrate the next generation communication system called the Cross Com. It's an intergrated all purpose command and control communication system that links each individual soldiers and their supports together, with this you can share each other's POV (Point of view) wirelessly controls the UAV and other drones from a safe distance while still be able to pownding your enemies. The system also intergrates the NARCOM, a direct satellite video link between the ground team and high command. My nephew Sonic and his friend already have this technology two months ago and it saved their lives more often than not.

* * *

As noon approaches on the mountains of Zagoria, a small team of brave highly trained, skilled warfighters armed with the latest advancements in battlefield technology methodically moves through the forest with their weapons at the ready, pointing forward keeping an eye on enemies that might come at them. Leading the team was Silver the Hedgehog, his teammates were as usual, Leeta and Lyco Wolf the twin sisters, Shard the Hedgehog, Larry Lynx and the newly recruited Metal Sonic. They progressed through the woods to see on the horizon, through the leaves and sun lights in the woods, a small observation post, manned and guard by three guerrillas. "Contact, hostile riflemen, 60 meters, 12 o'clock." Silver informs his teammates on their comms, from Silver's Cross Com HUD, the three enemies he spotted were high lighted with three red diamonds icon while his teammates were blue diamonds. "Get into position, Larry you take the guy in the center. Shard take the guy on the left and Metal Sonic take the guy on the right." Silver sets up waypoint and tagged enemies for his teammates to take down. "Copy that, got one in my scope." Larry said to Silver as he prepares his M110 sniper rifle and aim at his target's head. When all three enemies were lined up, Silver gave the signal and all three enemies drop to the ground simutaniously.

"Great job guy. Larry, take point and keep us safe from snipers."; "Got it, i'll keep my eyes peels." Larry then moves up ahead of the team, wearring his ghillie suits and pack along with a camouflaged sniper rifle, Larry took down another enemies on top of a ridge over looking the pathway that his teammates would be going. As his teammates moves up to meet up with him, Larry kept an overwatch for his team as they moves to him, when all of them were together again, they took an east turn to a tent camp of the guerrillas. "Silver, do you remember how to spring an ambush?" Leeta asked, looking at him with a nervous expression. "Yeah i do, but i'm not good at the execution, this was easier when Elias was still the team leader." Silver replied with a fearful thought in his eyes as he stares at Leeta, "Don't worry Silver, we've been through this before, we'll get through it again." Leeta assures Silver as she position herself next to Silver along with her sister Lyco. Shard and Metal Sonic positioned themselves on the left flank by a tree, and Larry lies down on a small earth mound, using a good sniping position, he spots targets for his teammates to know before engage.

Once all targets are identified Silver give the order to fire and his teammates let loose a hail of bullets, catching the enemies off guard and killing most of the guards while they were eating, some of the enemies were sleeping in the tents, woke up and panick at the sudden attack but were quickly dispatched by the bullets ripping through the tents fabric. "Check your fire! I think we're clear. That was too close." Silver said, as he signals his teammates to regroup and get ready to move on to the cave. "Overlord, this is Ghost leader, we're moving into the cave now. We'll update when we secure the package. Over."; "Confirmed Ghost Leader. Stay sharp in those caves, you don't know what's waiting for you behind those corners."

As Silver and his teammates moves into the cave from the two entry points, he put on his ENVG (Enhanced Night Vision Goggles) and still retain his cautious approach. As the team slowly clear out enemies inside the cave silently, they heard the sound of screaming and what appears to be an interrogation going on on the far side of the cave. "You better talk now you mangie dog. Where is the NAPA's camp?" The interrogator asked the tied up white man in olive drab shirt and a camouflaged coat and jeans. "Nyet (no)! What makes you think i will reveal the location of my tovarish (comrades) svoloch (asshole)? Go ahead and kill me, there will be more who would replace me and protect this country from you imperialists!" The man bravely ridicule and shows defiance to his captors, eventhough he was tired to a chair and was beaten up real bad.

"Yuri! Fried this capitalist pig! If he doesn't talk then we'll make BBQ out of him!" The interrogator shouted at his colleague to grab a pair of electric shocker and prepare to give the prisoner a shock therapy. Unbeknown to them, they were being watched by Silver and his team, and without warning, two bullets were fired from Silver's M468 and the two interrogators dropped to the floor. "Huh? Who's there? Stove ha didi? (What's going on?)" His answer came immediately as Silver and Leeta came into the room and secure the man. "Don't worry. We're your sniyuza. (Allies) An old friend of yours send us here. Are you Boris Papashvili?"; "Da (yes), i am Boris. Who are you anyway and how did you find this place?" Boris asked Silver in curiosity as he was still recovering from earlier injuries. "That's not the matter right now. What matters is that i get you out of here."

Silver help Papashvili up his feet, and prepares to move out. "Wait, there is a NAPA camp to the South East of here about 3 miles. We should be able to get there if we use one of their pick up truck." Papashvili's words gave Silver an idea but he was skeptical about going to the NAPA camp. "Are they friendly?" the hedgehog asked. "Da (yes) i'm a NAPA fighter as well. When they see you bringing me back to their camp. They'll welcome with open hands. But i need to look like an active fighting allied to you to convince them." After giving the idea some thinking, Silver decided to gave Boris an AK74 from one of the dead guerrillas as he and his teammates moves to a white pickup truck down the road and board it, with Papashvili sitting next to Silver and Shard while the rest were sitting on the back of the truck, Silver drove the white truck down the road with Boris's instruction on the turns and avoiding checkpoints.

After nearly an hour and a half of driving they arrives at the edge of a forrest where NAPA camp was supposedly at. "Okay let's go my friends. I'll introduce you to some of the passionate warriors of Zagoria serving the NAPA for more than 15 years." Boris excitedly led Silver and his teammates moves through the forest to a small guerrilla camp inside the woods where the NAPA fighters when saw one of their comrades return ran over and celebrate Boris's return to their hands. "Great we brought him back to his camp and no beer and hip hip hooray for us." Shard sarcasticly commented the situation. His words quickly reached the ears of the NAPA partisan fighters, they turned to see the saviors of Boris and welcome the team to the camp. "Greetings to you stranger. I am commander Vladimir Petrenko, commander of the NAPA fighters in the Republic of Zagoria. Who are you and who sent you here?"; "I am...a Ghost. And i was never here. Our boss is a certain owl name whose name will still be undisclose for security reasons." Silver replied to the commander balancing between the trust and the top secret informations he knows. "Hmmm, judging by the way you talked, i think i know who is your boss. Is it Harvey Who?" Silver was shocked completely because how commander Petrenko knows Silver's boss.

"How did you..." Silver confusingly asked commander Petrenko who in turns had a good laugh and explains. "You see, i met Harvey Who back in the days of the old Soviet Union in the Cold War. I was a simple farmer back then and Harvey offered a very good sum of money. 5000 Mobiums, the kind of payments that no job here in the Soviet republics can provide you with. He and i created the first NAPA partisan cell here in the Cascasus Mountians before expanding it to the other regions of the Soviets. We fought a long and bitter guerrilla war against our totaliant leaders and causes their downfall. But in the wake of the collapse of Communism, not all of our problems like freedom and democracy were solved instead it created a new one. After the Soviet Union collapsed, all the tensions between different ethic groups, religions and Nationalism causes wide spread civil wars, and NAPA must stand on its own feet to protect the people that it was raise from." Petrenko's explanation gave Silver and his teammates a clear knowledge of what was going on around the country.

"Thanks for the info commander, i guess that i'm clear to introduce myself. I am Silver the Hedgehog, these are my friends, Shard, Metal Sonic, Larry Lynx, Leeta and Lyco Wolf. It seems that you need some help combating the pro Udaloyan guerrilla, tell you what, we'll stay with here, train your men and fight along side them to rid these guerrilla out of Zagoria. But we'll need you to help us resupply our gears by setting up a safe resupply point for Harvey to give us the neccessities like ammos and spare equipments." Silver's offer was too good for Petrenko, the partisan commander whole heartedly accept the offer of the hedgehog. "Of course Silver, consider it done. We'll make some accomadation for you and your friends here in my camp. We'll eat, train, fight and play together like family. And must of all, we have Harvey as our mutual friend, there is no barrier between the two of us."


	6. Chapter 5: Broken Wings

Chapter 5: Broken Wings

Somewhere in the Zagoria's northern mountain, Democratic Republic of Zagoria, Cascarus Mountains

August 21st, 3:55 AM

Grid: 0943867102

Situation: Working closely with NAPA fighters, Knothole Force deployed to recover a down aircrew behind enemy lines.

Weather: Cloudy

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 Tier-1 Team callsign Ghost

+OPFOR: 1 Company size militia encampment.

Harvey's Briefing: Looks like we got ourselves a rescue op people, the Navy has been pounding militia positions for two days now and they have lost one of their jets. The militia got lucky shooting down one of the Navy's F18-E with an SA 18 Igla AA shoulder launcher. The pilot and the weapons officer managed to bailed out before hitting the ground but they were picked up by the enemy and taken to a nearby farm. We need you to demolished the wreck of the jet because it still contains sensitive equipment that we don't want to fall into enemy's hands and recover the air men back to safety. Also try to minimize hostile casauties, Moskarv has already made a big stink about us and the GUN involve in their "Internal affair", the next thing we want is that Moskarv got an excuse to step and annex the whole region because of high casaulties of their supporters from abroad. About the Red Ghost, rest assure to you that i have a plan to stop them but we need to play along with theirs for now. Until the very final moment is when Uri is most likely to reveal himself and our chance of get to him is at its best.

Petrenko's intel: My scout managed to locate the wreckage of the plane, it still lies on the crop with about a platoon size guard force around it. Also the pilot was taken to a barn for interrogation while the weapons officer is being held in a farm house, on the second floor. There are many patrols around the area they spread out pretty far from each other to hold down a large area so you should have the advantage of stealth if you stay clear of the patrols.

Chuck's armory update: It's night time and no moon, so bring along a pair of enhanced night vision goggles, also take suppressed weapons with you and a satchel charge. I would recommend taking the M468 with suppressor and the MP5SD or the MP7 with suppressor attatchment. NAPA partisan also have some suppressed weapons you can use like the AS VAL, AKS74U with suppressor or a suppressed AK74.

* * *

At the dead of night, while the whole forrest was asleep, no one knows that six mobians have already infiltrated the area, bringing along them a massive arsenal of high tech weapons and equipments. As Silver the hedgehog and his teammates kneel on the ground surveying the area with their satellite map they draws up a plan on how to rescue the air crew and destroy the plane's wreckage. "Here's the plan, Shard and Metal Sonic you too take the plane's wreckage and demolish it, the twins and i will rescue the pilot and the weapons crew, once we've got our objectives we'll regroup by the riverbank and move back to extraction point Tango. Got it?" Everyone nod and moves out to their objective.

Shard and Metal Sonic move through the forrest with Larry Lynx wearring a ghillie suit following them with his Remington MSR sniper rifle with ghillie camo and a suppressor. "So, ready for some real family bonding?" Shard asked jokingly to Metal Sonic, "Affirmative, brother. Your safety is my number 1 priority." Shard's metallic brother replied with a monotone voice, Shard is still teaching Metal Sonic how to behave like a real sentient being. As they moves through the forest, avoiding the patrols and to the crop where the plane wreck is lying on the ground. Shard and Metal Sonic assemble the Raven UAV and launches it into the air, with Metal Sonic controlling the drone with his onboard Cross com software the spots targets and their threat level to him and his teammates.

Armed with the knowledge of their enemies, Larry sets up his sniping position on a mound of earth overlooking the crash site, while Shard and Metal Sonic were moving in closer to prepare for their suprise attack. "Jack, postion and ready."; "Joker, in position and ready."; "Standing by to engage." As the three of them were position, Shard gave Larry the signal to shoot the at the generator and the Lynx fired a bullet at the generator which explodes with a small blast and follows with a complete blackout around the crash site, then Shard and Metal Sonic engages the suprised enemies while they were panicking in the dark and confusion.

The two hedgehog, both organic and metallic moves up and flank around the jet with Larry providing sniper back up, taking down any enemies that might try to backstab his teammates. "All clear, set the demo charge little bro." Shard signals Metal Sonic, who then approaches the aircraft wreck and sets the demolition charge on an ideal spot for the entire wreck to be destroy in one blast. "Charges set, proceeding to minimum safety distance!" Shard and Metal Sonic quickly ran to a safe distance and let the plane's wreckage to blow up sky high.

"Ace, this is Jack, my team just destroy the wreckage. What's your status? Over."; "This is Ace, we got the pilot but we need you to get the weapons officer looks like the militia just called the other patrols to come back and reinforce their positions."; "Roger that Ace, we're moving with the quickest out." Shard then signals his teammates to regroup on him and moves on to the farm house. "Gotta say bro, not bad on your second time out in the field. Guess you do have a spark of good in you." Shard's comment on Metal Sonic's performance made some impact on Metal Sonic.

Inside his processor, Metal Sonic first remembers his time with Eggman, his mindless evil act for the bumbling incompetence evil doctor and his failures to face off with Sonic all ends with his destruction and being abused by the doctor. But now when he is with his brother, his actions are rewarding, being celebrated and even considered to be a hero. It's a life changer that normally organics would understand but to a robot whose daily thoughts are nothing, Metal Sonic would need time to understand the changes that are happening to his life, his thought. As they close in on the farm house with enemies were patrolling outside of the house and its backyard. "We got hostiles around the house, better take them out first but keep it quiet, we don't want to alert the whole country side to our present." Shard and his teammates then silently taking out each and every single hostiles they see without alerting their comrades to reinforce their postion. Once the patrols outside were all dead, the two hedgehogs then prepare to breach the house, with Larry spotting enemies that were inside the living room, he saw two enemies that were drinking Vodka and conversing to each other.

With the Cross Com technology, Larry quickly relay the information to his teammates as the two hedgehogs stacked up on bothsides of the front door, "Flash and clear. Go!" Shard kicked down the door and Metal Sonic tossed in a flashbang, blinding the two militias inside, "Breaching breaching!" Shard and Metal Sonic storms the house and taking out the two enemies that were in the living room with his MP5SD. "No threat detected. Ground floor clear." Metal Sonic detected no threat on the ground floor to him or to his borther. "I shall take point. Moving up the stairway now." Metal Sonic then moves up the stair way with his suppressed M468, taking advantage of darkness and his night vision mode, Metal Sonic took down an enemy that was camping on the stairway.

"Hostile neutralized." He moves up to the second floor where he points his weapon around the corner using the Cross Com and the mounted micro camera on the M4's side rail, Metal Sonic surveys the area room and the corners around him, "Weapons Officer spotted. One hostile is guarding the target. Taking out the threat now." Metal Sonic adjust his aim of the rifle to an optimal view, and fired a headshot at the militia that was guarding the weapon officer. "We're clear. Ace this is Jack, we got the weapons officer, moving back to the extraction point now."; "Roger that Jack, We're moving back to the rally point at the river bed now. Suggest you move quick, i heard on hostile comms that they'll be back in 10 minutes." Shard then untied the weapons officer and took away the blindfold that was on him. "Hey who are you? Freedom fighters, what and why is Metal Sonic is with you?" The weapons officer who was a Mobian Porcupine asking Shard about why is he rescuing the air men. "Doesn't matter who we are. What matters is that we're taking you out of here. Follow me and stay close. Metal Sonic escort him."; "Affirmative brother."

Shard and his teammates then sprints back to the rally point and meet up with Silver and the wolf pack twins the pilot who was a Mobian Bulldog was crouching on the ground behind Silver. "Good to see you guys, let's get moving better be out of here before the reinforcements get here. We only have 5 minutes until they arrive. Let's move!" then everyone stands up and ran out of the farm area and back into the forest, where they slow down and take their time with the patrols, then they sprints all the way back to a open field where a pair of pick up trucks of NAPA partisan were waiting for them. "Finally, we thought that you wouldn't come. I trust that all of your objectives have been met yes? Then let's go we need to get back to the NAPA camp before sun rise. There has been some situation development that you need to see." The NAPA fighter, Boris Papashvili said to Silver and his team as they embarked on the trucks and drive away from the area back to the hidden NAPA camp. But this time it's not a mission accomplished result that they want to see. But in fact it's a game changer that they fear to see.


	7. Chapter 6: Iron Heart

Chapter 6: Iron Heart

Zagorian Defense Force's Field Headquarter, Zagoria's Eastern Flank, 15 miles into the Zagoria's side of the Zagoria-Udaloya's border.

August 21st, 14:15

Grid: 0941567324

Situation: The Knothole Freedom Fighter commanded by Sally Acorn must help the ZDF defend their border against the sudden invasion by Udaloya.

Weather: Clear

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 motorized infantry platoon.

+OPFOR: 1 armored recon company.

Amadeus's Briefing: Situation has just gone way too hot. This morning the Udaloyan president has just declared an "International meddling" into regional affair and he's using the excuses of the coalition's bombardment, and the casaulties of the pro Udaloyan militian as excuses to invade and annex the Cascasus mountains. I'm giving the green light to assist the ZDF's defensive operation in anyway possible. Right now our first priority is to knockout the the invasion force's main armored thrust, your mission objective is to defend the ZDF's field headquarter our their entire Eastern Flank will collapse. There's a railway bridge on in front of the HQ you can use it to ambush the incoming armored recon force. Satellite recon shows that the enemy are moving in a pair of T90 main battle tank backed up by a large contingent of infantry. You need to use anything and everything at your disposal to stop them or this war is over before we even decided the best outcome.

ZDF's intel: Our force's stationed at the HQ are lightly, they are armed with only small arms and hand grenades, and only a DhsK HMG to defend the the HQ from the invading force. We do have some magnetic AT mines that you can use. Lay them on the road where the tanks would go then we can ambush them with everything we got.

* * *

At the field headquarter of the ZDF's eastern flank, inside a small wooden house stand by a road in front of a railway bridge. Sally Acorn, leader of the Knothole Freedom Fighter, wearring her standard issue Crye Universal Camo uniform with a Crye Precision AirFrame Helmet was working with NICOLE, her best friend and the Freedom Fighter's friendly AI to workout the assault route of the Udaloyan's Army in the area. Working tiredlessly on the holographic map and communication grids of both friendlies and enemies, NICOLE gently draws up a map of the enemy's armored recon patrol that was heading straight for the HQ. "Okay Sally, the enemy armored patrol is coming toward us from the road but there are also infantry patrols on bothsides of the railway bridge. If they sneak through our defenses then they'll be able to mount a pincer move against us with everything they have."

NICOLE explains the situation to Sally as she displays the enemy's advances through the woods from an overhead satellite map. "Thanks NICOLE. Real appreciated. Alright Freedom Fighters, this is the plan. The ZDF forces are gonna hold the HQ, we'll split up into two teams, then we'll find and destroy those patrols before they can radio in support. We'll then move to the bridge and set up an ambush. Sonic, Tails you two are with me. Antoine, Bunnie and Rotor you guys will take the forrest to the left. Let's get this show on the road." the freedom fighters then moves out of the HQ building and split up into two teams of 3 and began their patrols inside the woods.

Tails was moving closely with Sonic, the fox was having a hard time mentally, he hasn't displayed any kind of emotion lately eversince that bomb at the border blows up. The sight and sounds of radio statics, his teammates were all killed in the blast but he was still alive. For what? To be tormented by this nightmare over and over again whether he is awake or asleep? Even Sonic wasn't helping his best friend to recover from these traumas. Just making it worst, the way Sonic act, the way he behaves, his life styles and ultimately his cocky, egotistical attitude makes Tails disgust.

Tails need counseling and help from a mother like his real mother Rosemary Prower, or maybe his legal guardian Sally Acorn. But Sonic's carefree, fun loving way of life drove the two once best friends apart. Tails was keeping his cool, carefully observing his surroundings, holding his weapon tight and retain ever ready vigilant attitude. When suddenly his fox ears heard something. He heard the sounds crunching grasses, and Russians speaking in the distance (Author's note: From this point onward the OPFOR will be refer as Russian).

"I heard Russians. Deploying drone." Tails quickly assemble a Quad rotor drone and controls it from his Cross Com monocle. The drone was flying through the forest when it came to a clear area with rocky formations, it spotted the enemy patrols there were five of them. Walking calmly by the railway, with no suspicion in their mind, but that would soon change. "Contact, enemy foot mobiles 40 meters up head.

Three riflemen, one machine gunner and a support gunner." Tails desginated the five enemy soldiers that he saw with red diamond shape icons. The red diamonds appears on the HUDs of Sally and Sonic who then moves up behind a pair of trees and take cover. They peer at the enemy patrols who were moving towards them and aim their weapons at the enemy troops. Tails came up last and aim his M468 at the machine gunner who wielding a PKP Pecheng LMG. "Sonic, Sally. This is Rotor, we got enemy contacts, moving to engage now. Over."; "Copy that Rotor, we got hostiles contact on our side too. Moving to engage now."

Sally then gave the signal for her teammates to open fire and the muzzle flashes flares up, firing at the Russians who were on coming toward them. On the other side of the railway bridge. Rotor and his teammates were also engaging the Russian patrols in a surprise ambush, first they suppressed the enemies. Then one of them flank around and finish up the patrols. Sonic and Bunnie flanked the Russian patrols on the right and left flank respectively, wiping out the enemies before they can contact reinforcements. "All clear! Alright move up at the bridge. We'll set up ambush there."

Sally and her teammates all gather at the bridge where from on top, they saw Russian infantries being led by a pair of T90 tanks. "Javelin ready. Missile Lock. Fire!" Rotor launches a Javelin ATGM missile flying on top of a T90 and blow up the tank. He then fired another missile after reload and destroy the other tank with quick success. "Open fire on the hostiles!" Sally made the call for her teammates to drop the remaining Russian soldiers who were panicking and running for cover. Hails of bullets from on top of the bridge rained down on the Russians below, the enemy troops were panicked at the sudden high casaulties they received, they eventaully routed, retreat to the rear of their lines while Sally and her teammates were celebrating their quick victory. "We did it Sal! Way past!" Sonic high five Sally but the cocky hedgehog soon notice a serious look on Sally's face, the squirred-chipmunk hybrid was looking at the road that the Russians retreated, "We're not done yet Sonic. Something tells me this is the beginning of a long bloody war. And i'm fearful for Tails's fate in this war. I just hope that we all come home safely, all of us."


	8. Chapter 7: Evacuation

Chapter 7: Evacuation

Outskirt of Tbillisi, capital of Zagoria.

August 24th, 9:45

Gird: 093268712456

Situation: The Knothole Freedom Fighter must gather what's left of the Coalition of Mobian Aid to the Kingdom of Acorn's embassy in the city center for evacuation.

Weather: Clear

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 Mechanized Battalion

+OPFOR: 2 Armored Battalion, 1 Frontal Aviation Regiment

Amadeus Prower's Briefing: The situation went mighty FUBAR within just three days, we can't fight the Russkies head on right now. We need to regroup and evacuate as many friendlies as possible. Our evac center is at the Kingdom of Acorn's embassy building in the center of town. But you'll need to move fast to get an evac our window is closing by the minutes the Russians have set up air defense and SAM sites around town to threaten our bird and their arties have been shelling the city days and night. Your first objective is to pick up a small patrol of our GUN allies, they reported that their vehicle broke down in the middle of the road in the outskirt. Also they said that they've been spotted by Russian troops around them. Once you've secure them, move to the embassy for safe evac. Good luck and godspeed.

Geoffrey St John's intel: You'll be fighting from streets to streets, house to house so bring along assault rifles for fast movers, LMG for suppressive fire, and heavy fire power like grenade launchers and HE frags to clear out buildings and its interiors. Also you don't have much air support and artillery support is a no go given the current situation. You'll have to make do with whatever you got. Mainly IFVs and cavalry tanks.

* * *

On the outskirt of Tibillisi, the capital of Zagori, the highways are cramped with convoys of retreating Coalition forces fleeing from the might of the Red Army. Lines and lines of command vehicle, ambulances, tanks and APCs and IFVs. All multitudes of war running for safety in their Blue Zone. In the courtyard of the Kingdom of Acorn's embassy, an M1130 Command Vehicle's crew were working around the clock to maintain complete command and control over their forces on the defenses of the city buying time to evac litter urgent personel and civilians out of the warzone. "CrimeBoss to all convoy Zulu come in over."; "This is convoy Zulu, we're approaching the city now on route Indiana 45, i count at least 5 vehicles, Humvees and HEMTT trucks over. Shit! We're under fire! Hostiles are coming toward on both flanks, i got two vehicles down already requesting immediate support!"; "We hear you convoy Zulu, support is on the way out."

The commander quickly turns his attention to an icon on his RTS map. he touched the icon of a shock infantry unit, the Knothole Freedom Fighter of Sally Acorn, who were on stand by. "Hunter 2-1 this is Crime Boss, we got friendlies pinned down on route Indiana 45. They need your help move fast and be aggressive."; "Affirmative CrimeBoss, moving with the quickest out." Sally quickly gather up her teammates they mounted up on a Hunter MRAP with a remote control turret on top. They drove out of the city, moving as fast as they can to route I-45, inside the MRAP, the atmosphere was tense, everyone knows that they're surrounded, the enemies outnumbered them 5 to 1, the sight of being evacuated is dangling on a rope and it could snap at anytime. Even Sonic couldn't make a joke to lighten up the situation, he sat next to Tails, looking at the fox boy thinking about how Tails would feel when Sonic when isn't serious. He started to understand why Tails is being so far apart from him, because Tails has grown up, matured a lot from war. He became hardened, calculating, prudent and patience waiting for the most opportuned moment to arise and seize it.

"Tails buddy, i was thinking, that maybe i wasn't good enough for you. Maybe i'm not suitable to you anymore. You're all grown up, you're strong, tough and hardened. And i didn't see that in you, and i was such a jerk to you, i only cared about my ego but never given neither you nor Sal a second thought about your well being. I'm sorry, okay? We're cool?" Tails only gave Sonic a slight glance, the eyes of the golden fox has readiness and battle hardened nature edged firmly in it. "We'll see about that." Tails coldly replied to Sonic then the fox turn back to his weapons and cocked it up, prepares his equipment for battle. As the MRAP came to a stop, all around them they heard the sounds of battle, bullets whistling pass them, or ricochet off the vehicle's hull, Rotor the Walrus was operating the remote control turret from the safety of his seat and bullet proof glass and explosive proof vehicle hull. While then, Sally, Sonic, Tails, Bunny and Antoine disembarked the vehicle and spread out to provide a defensive permitmeter around the stranded convoy. "First Sgt Sally Acorn here what's the situation?" Sally stacked behind a humvee with a soldier of the Kingdom staying low and firing his weapon at the Russians. "Specialist, Hanson at your service ma'am. We're totally screw up, i lost two vehicles in the convoy my guys are either dead or injured. Just only a handful of us left, hope that you can get us out of this hell hole!"; "Get your wounded packed up into the vehicles, we're moving in five!"; "Sir yes sir! You heard the lady, don't just stand there and pick them up!"

The woundeds were then loaded on the remaining vehicles some were stabilized but others were still in crtitical situation, as the evacuation began to take pace, the stranded convoy began to rev up their engines and roll out once again, leaving the Russian paratroopers behind them shooting wildly at the retreating vehicles. "CrimeBoss this is Hunter 2-1. We got the convoy we're rolling back to you now what's the status back there over?"; "Hunter 2-1 this is CrimeBoss, we got the enemies moving from all sides, our forces are heavily engaged. Enemy paratroopers are trying to attack the embassy. Repeat we're under attack and are in dire need of reinforcements!" The sounds of gunfire, shoutings and cursing on the other side of the Cross Com, forced the freedom fighters to move faster and lead the convoy back into the city and back to the embassy. Driving at ever accelerating speed, they dodges rain of artillery shells, the increasing amount of bullets fired by hostile infantries. Once they've got back to the embassy, they disembark their vehicle in front of the embassy leave it to other soldiers to manned. The freedom fighters quickly garrisoned the embassy building with Sally and Sonic on the balcony, Rotor and Tails on the roof and Bunnie and Antoine at the east wing.

"Contact! Hostile infantries coming in from the north!" Tails shouted out where the enemies were coming from then suppressed them with his M416 carbine. Rotor joins in by using his underbarrel grenade launcher and fired a shot at the enemies, the grenade exploded and wiping out a squad. But it wasn't enough, more enemies were coming they suppressed Rotor and Tails on the roof forcing Sonic and Sally must open fire on them, keeping the Russians head down. "Snaipa protivyka! (Enemy snipers!)" the Russians duck behind cars and scramble to covers, hiding behind pillars, trying to find where the shots came from, from the windows next to the balcony, Sonic and Sally where firing their heavy sniper rifles at the swarming Russians. Things rapidly deteriorate as the Russian brought in their mortar and artillery support. "Yesteraye, protavesvoilva. Voltra! Voltra! (Target cooridnates lock, firing barrage now! Splash out! Splash out!" The rain of shells came down, on the embassy's gate, tearing up the landscapes around it and brought down the walls and shake the embassy building. "Hunter 2-1, this is CrimeBoss, we got enemy mortar postion lock on. But they got jammer and a detatchment of anti air squad! We can't get anybody down there, to clear it out over!" The command vehicle operator and Sonic were both distraught by the grim situation they're facing, at how fast the Russians have advanced and their relentless brute force can overwhelmed the most technologically advanced military force on Mobius.

"Then what can we do to dislodge them out without having the embassy ground overrun?!" Sonic asked infuriatedly on the Cross Com, but at that moment, the command vehicle operator was monitoring a situation development, he saw on SAT recon a squad of 6 members were attacking the enemy mortar position with relentless squeed, aggression. Although the image was rather fuzzy because of the jammer but he can see that someone is attacking the Russian to relieve the pressure from Coalition forces but that squad isn't part of the coalition's ground forces. He saw how the Russians fell back and progressively ran away from the park where the mortars were. He saw a figure look like Sonic, but it has some sort of metallic shiny on it, not only that but it also has stick like limbs, it was planting a C4 satchel charge on the jammer and get clear of it. Then the figure detonated the satchel charge and destroy the jammer. It was then that the imagery of the surveilance satelites began to restore to normal, the operator saw the mysterious strike force searching through the bodies of dead officers, when one of them found a hard drive device, and they ran away from the site. Unable to muster any surveilance force to trace their movement, the operator must seal the time frame of the surveilance phootage he saw and send it to Sonic and Sally.

"Hunter 2-1, this is CrimeBoss, we got something here, you might want to see this." The operator send the video phootage to Sonic and Sally on their NARCOM, they saw the video of the strike force went in and out of the city's park where the mortar originated from, they baffling at the identity of the mysterious attackers but they were soon have to turn their attention to the Russians as they bring in their T90 tank. The tank roll down the streets to the embassy with its barrel pointing at the building itself ready to fire, "CrimeBoss, this is Overlord, we got CAS strike on the horn, flight of two A164 Wipeout, callsign Thunderbolt, standing by for close air support. Over."; "CrimeBoss good copy, marking targets for airstrikes now over." The command vehicle operator tap the red icon of the enemy T90 tanks on the command map screen confirming the GPS coordinates of the target to the A164, "Roger that CrimeBoss, GPS and target ID are confirmed. Coming hot now." The two stealth tank busters jets came down on top of the T90 tank and its supporting vehicles, the pilots squeeze their triggers and mow down the armored column with their strafing run, then they came around with a air to ground missile strike, decimating the remaining vehicles. "Crime Boss this is Thunderbolt, targets are confirmed toast, we're bugging out now."; "Many thanks Thunderbolt, we're evacuating our forces now, thank god that you were there to save our asses."

Eventually, within the space of 4 hours, the freedom fighters and the remaining Coalition forces were evacuated from the city, by the air cav formations. Most of the men were battered and demoralized at their defeat, but for others especially Sally, this is the beginning of a new World War. One that have been predicted but never knew when it will starts. For a moment of quiet on their V35 Valkyrie VTOL transport, Sally wrote a letter to her brother at home Elias Acorn, ruling king of the Kingdom of Acorn. "Dear Elias, i'm writing to tell you that i'm still alive and well. Right now the men and i are being delivered back to the fleet in the Black Sea, and most of us are really demoralized, this is the beginning of a new World War. I don't know if i'm going to make it through it. I wonder how is daddy doing, if he's getting better from his sickness or not. Tell them i love them and be strong and be a great king like daddy used to Elias, and most of all be a good husband and father to your wife and child. Your loving sister, Sally Acorn."


	9. Chapter 8: Exit Strategy

Chapter 8: Exit Strategy

The woods outside the town Tovokamov, Zagoria

September 15th, 4:30 AM

Grid: 093457128954

Situation: Voluntarily stay behind enemy lines to fight the Russian occupiers, Knothole Force Tier-1 team callsign Ghost plan to make hell for the Russian forces occupying Zagoria with NAPA guerrilla fighters.

Weather: Cloudy, rain

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 Tier-1 team callsign Ghost

+Independent: 2 infantry companies with Mortar supports

+OPFOR: 1 Motorized Infantry Battalion, 2 MI 24V Hind gunships

Harvey's briefing: The Russian goverment's declaration of "Welcoming" the Democratic Republic of Zagoria into the Russian Federation has caused uproars through out the world. The Zagorian goverment in exile has issued a strong objection from their office in Geneva, Switzerland condemming the Russian act of aggression. The Kingdom of Acorn, the United Federation and the UN has condemmed the invasion as an act of aggressive imperialism. That means they'll be back, with larger force for a full scale war with the Russian. For now we need to lay the ground work, your mission is to work with NAPA partisan fighters and wreck havoc on the Russian as much as possible. First we need to know what the Russians are doing in the country, your job tonight is to captured a Russian high ranking military officer named Major Colonel Vitaly Kharokov. He's traveling on a convoy to inspect a military camp outside the town Tovokamov, the plan is that NAPA fighters will harrass the camp with mortars and sniper fires while you ambush and stop the convoy. Make sure that you watch your fire, we need the colonel alive as HUMINT. Once you captured the colonel, make your way through the wood back to the extraction point where the partisans will help you back to their camp.

Petrenko's Intel: My men will harrass the camp with mortar shells and sniper fires, their callsign is Black Wolf. We have a very limited amount of shell to harrass the Russian main forces in the camp. So you will have to spring the ambush very fast grab the target and run as fast as you can back to the extraction point. However we've also learned that the enemy has deployed their helicopter squadron into this area as a Quick Reaction Force. Expect gunship sweeps and Spetsnaz commando to be mobilized once the alarm is sound.

* * *

As Silver leads his team through the forrest in the dead of night, he keeps his communication with NAPA fighters who were not far from him, they were preparing for a supprise assault on a nearby Russian encampment. "Ghost leader to Slingshot come in over." Silver contacted the NAPA commander with his radio equipment, "Ghost, this is Slingshot. My men are in position, mortar team is set, what's your status over?" Meanwhile back to Silver, he and his teammates were setting up land mines and arc of fires with some other NAPA teams. "Setting up the ambush now sir. What's the ETA on the convoy over?"; "Convoy is about 3 minutes out now. I suggest you hurry and set up that ambush. We'll fire on your go."; "Roger that, we're setting up the jammer too so the Russian won't be able to call their pals here." Silver gave Metal Sonic a hand signal to set up the radio jammer, Metal Sonic quickly assembled the radio jammer in his position, ready up the device with frequency lock on to Russian's communication frequency and active range. "Jammer set. Getting into position now." Metal Sonic then stay low on the ground, laying low with his XM25 ready to lay down heavy fire support.

Silver and his teammates quickly get into their respective positions, ready up their weapons and wait for their guests to arrive. "Slingshot this is Ghost leader, we're set and good to go. Repeat, we are set and good to go over."; "Good copy Ghost, we are going to shell the base in a few moments. Just make sure you grab the target and get out quick." Just at that moment, sounds of mortar fire and explosions begin to take hold of the area, the ground rumbles, the fire was burning anything it touches, Russian troops in their camp were screaming, howling, falling left and right as they seek shelters from the mortar attack, first their barracks were hit with two mortar shells and exploded, concretes and debris flying all over the place, then their armory was hit and exploded with a large "boom", "Ghost this is Slingshot, we have good effect on target, the Russian are in disarray and they're trying to call for help. What about you over?" Meanwhile at Silver's location, the convoy was coming in, still unaware of what was happening they were trying to call their comrades but to no avail, all they can hear on their radio was static sound. Suddenly their vehicles started to blow up one after another. The convoy stop immediately, their troops disembark and ready their weapons.

During the chaos and confusion, they were suddenly ambush by their guerrilla foes, the NAPA fighters. The Russian were being slaughtered by partisans hiding on both sides of the road, unable to keep their formations they were quickly gunned down to the last man, the only survivor was the high ranking officer who was lucky to stay out of the line of fire. He was soon discovered by Silver and his teammates who then tied his hands and put a bag on his head and begins to move back to their extraction site. "Slingshot, this is Ghost Leader, be advised. We've captured the target. Repeat major Kharokov is in our hand. We're taking him back to the extraction point now over."; "Good copy Ghost, outstanding work, we are withdrawing from the combat zone to our camp now. Be advised, we were able to pick up Russian radio traffics, they're mobilizing a QRF strike force to hunt us down. Expect Spetsnaz and gunships like you said over."; "Solid copy Slingshot we'll keep an eye out for them out. Come on guys we need to get the hell out of here before the Russian catch up with us move!"

Silver and his team rush through the forrest and suddenly they heard the sound of fear buzzing above. They look up and saw spotlights mounted on an MI 24V gunship, it was flying low above the forrest, finding a location to land, obviously to drop Russian Spetsnaz down to hunt down the NAPA fighters. "Shit! Looks like they're faster than we thought. We need to keep moving. Avoid contacts at all times." Silver signals his teammates to keep low, they hit the dirt and crawl to hide from the Hind's thermal sights. Then another MI 17 was flying over head and it starts to rope down Spetsnaz commando to hunt the NAPA fighters on the ground. "Looks like we have to break silence, Metal Sonic, you aim for that MI 17 with the M25. You ready?"; "On your go." Metal Sonic aims the XM25 grenade launcher's trajectory at the transport helicopter's cargo hold and as Silver gives the go ahead for his teammates, they fire their weapons and caught the Russian elite troops unaware, Metal Sonic fires a precision shot and brought down the MI 17 crashing down into the forrest. The Spetsnaz were equally caught off guard as their men were mowed down all too quickly to react, the pilots and gunner of the MI 24 turned their gunship back and fired salvoes of rocket against their enemies on the ground.

"Incoming!" Shard scream at the MI 24's barrage, he duck down to the ground with his friends and barrage inflicted massive damages to the forrest, knocking down trees, creating craters and not only that but killing more than half of the NAPA fighters who were following Silver's team. "Goddamn it! God fucking damn it! Fuck you Russian drunk pigs! Die!" Shard madly fire his CZ85 assault rifle at the Hind but the gunship's was like a flying crocodile, its armor was too tough to handle. "Fuck it! We can't take that thing with these pussy ass pea shooters. Larry, you think you can use your jinx on that thing?" Shard shouted to his Lynx companion, who was thinking his mind to the max to cause some sort of bad luck to the Hind, but instead exploding magazines for its nose canon, or failed engine or some other forms of bad luck, Larry causes something miraculous to happen. Larry found an SA 18 AA missile launcher, "Hey look! We got the thing we need! Help me with this Shard!" Larry loaded the missile launcher, and Shard was baiting the Hind to come back for round two. The Hind swung around and flies in, its nose was heading down and its gunner was ready to mop up. Suddenly, Larry launches his heat seeking missile and it slammed into the gunship's engine, inflicting critical damage to the helo as it crashed down into the forrest and exploded into a huge burning wreck.

"Slingshot this is Ghost Leader, be advised. We just took down an enemy helo, moving back to the extraction point now. What's your status, over?"; "Ghost Leader this is Slingshot, we are moving to an alternate base camp at grid Alpha-1 Golf-6. Our original base camp have been relocated there when we heard that the Russian were mounting Search and Destroy operation in the AO. Double back pronto over." Commander Petrenko and his men were driving like there's no tomorrow to their new base camp, their original encampment in the wood was packed up and moved away to avoid Russian Search and Destroy strikes. Their tents, supplies and other vital neccessities were all packed up into crates and loaded into trucks and technicals and runaway as fast as they can into the dead of night. Meanwhile Silver and his teammates have just arrived at the extraction point and were on the trucks being drove back to their new encampment. "Lights off Dimitri. We need to make sure Russian gunships doesn't see us." Silver reminded the drivers of their trucks, the headlights of the trucks were then turned off and the trucks continues their journey completely in the dark. For some reasons, the returning trip was rather quiet, almost too quiet. They expected roadblocks, armed patrols, choppers buzzing overhead but nothing happens. There wasn't any oppositions on the road. And so they came back to their new camp, at an old abandonned industrial complex. A good place to hide as the place was rather secluded, with hangers to hide vehicles, heavy machineries to repair their equimpents and producing better weapons, that is if they can refurbished these gives.

"Commander Petrenko, target is in the house." Silver presented Major Kharokov to commander Petrenko, the NAPA partisan were thrilled to know that their high stakes has paid off, not only have they scored a huge amount of damage on the Russian's garrison in the area but also their enemy's intel is now in their hands. "You truly are the master of warfare my friends. Harvey would be most pleased to know this. Now then Russian pig, what are your so called "Comrades" are planning now?" Petrenko begins to interrogate Kharokov who was tied to a chair inside the factory. Shard notices on the major's neck, there were tattoes of the St Basil church, a red skull with black hammer and sickle symbol on its forehead. "Wait, what's that tats on you? You don't look like one of those grunts." Major Kharokov chuckles when he heard Shard's assessment, it then bursts into a laugh. "That's right. I'm not one of those kids who think they're soldiers. Chairman Uri Vastizov was correct when he said that you were going to get him no matter the cost. Even if it leads to World War III or even Four. Well guess what kids, play time is over, we are the Red Ghosts. We've passed the phase one, now is phase two. Uri will let you win this fight, it will be a defeat so humiliating for the current Russian goverment that the people will no longer be contend with their leader. Then we will have our revenge on our leaders, arrogant, headstrong fools who used us like tools in the Cold War, treat us like scapegoats so they can escape the Hague scot free. But no more. When the people rock them out of the Kremlin, we will hunt them down and finish them off, one after another." Kharokov's tone began to grow stern as he continues his confession, he doesn't feel guilt, but rather joy or even freedom even in captivity. He show them all the positions of Russian troops, force compositions, strength and numbers.

"So you're willing to let some of your pals die just so you guys can have a pay back at your old bosses? Cold as ice." Leeta commented on Kharokov's action and decision, she felt somewhat a strong hatred toward major Kharokov but at the same time, she was questioning Red Ghosts very own sense patriotism or in any case, their moral sensibility, letting their comrades die in a needless war, destroy their own country's pride and dignity, send it into another time of instability and chaos just to be borned a new. It's a decision that only a dead man would make, cold, haunting and chill like ice on one's spine. Their whole plan was the touch of dead man on the living people who betrayed in their last life.


	10. Chapter 9: Getting Serious

Chapter 9: Getting serious

ZDF Armor Depot, Town of Tselinskoye, Zagoria

September 19th, 8:35 Am

Grid: 0902561934

Situation: NAPA forces decided to get some heavy armors from the remaining ZDF base that is still refuse to capitulate to the Russian occupiers.

Weather: Clear

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 Tier-1 team callsign Ghost

+Independent: 1 Mechanized Battalion, 1 Armored Battalion (Under sieged)

+OPFOR: 1 Mechanized Infantry Regiment, 1 Frontal Aviation Combat Wing

Harvey's briefing: The Russian is going to take their expansion into overdrive and we need to stop them ASAP. The war in Eastern Europe is raging at this moment, the ground situation is a stalemate but we are gaining the upper hand slowly through air superioty, an invasion force is being mobilized to liberate Zagoria and open up a another front and hit the Russian in the back. Your job here in Zagoria is to pave the way for the invasion to go off without a hidge and that's to withered down the Russian occupation force to nothing. Today's job is to increase the force composition of NAPA by "Buying" some tanks for them, a local ZDF Armor Depot is still holding out and refuse to capitulate to the Russian, they have some high quality tanks that NAPA could use. Those T-64Es in there can become a deadly force to be retcon with if use properly in guerrilla warfare against Russian T90 tanks and maybe you can also ask the local commander there to join NAPA and bring his troops along with him. It will enlarge the partisans significantly.

Petrenko's Intel: Our comrades in various regions of Zagoria has joined up with us to become a much larger force, they brought along valuable supplies and equipments. We were able to formed a mechanized task force to execute this high risk operation to seize the tanks. The Russian in the area have T90 tanks, BMPs, mechanized infantries and a squadron of ATGM helicopter to stop us from getting those tanks. Our plan is to attack the Russians who are keeping the perimeter tight around the Armor Depot, once we've taken their positions, we'll then dig in and start evacuating those tanks back to our hideouts using the east road. The Russian will try to counter attack and stop us, use landmines, AT mines, captured heavy weapons and just about anything you can lay your hands on to stop them then retreat back to the safe zone with us.

Chuck's Armory Intel: Take AT mines and claymores with you, remember not to spread too close to each other or you may decimate your own traps before the Russian set it off. Also bring along some AA launchers to take down any enemy gunships if you see them, and AT launchers to hit enemies tanks from a safe distance.

* * *

Morning in Zagoria, the wind blew peacefully, the sun was already up to shine the land, the people were trying to live their lives in hope to find normal semblance. But it is hard to find it, the Russian occupiers were getting too harsh for everyone to bear with, each day the Russian hunt down the rebels and performs reprisals, retribution against the local population. The people grew tired of their aggressors, they wanted the Russian kick out, they protest on the street only to be get the bullets, they ran into the forest to find NAPA partisans and join the fight, even to the extreme of suicidal bombing. The Russian's casaulties started to mount up, their attrition rates climb up rapidly, their moral started to grind down as the men wishes to go home instead of continuing their occupation, but men who dare to raise their voice about withdrawing the Russian's 5th Army out of Zagoria would be shot on sight by their officers or by the Political officers whose job is to suppress disidents and ensure the political reliability of the military.

The NAPA partisans move their troops around the town Tselinskoye, they stealthily hide in the bushes, uses the forest to shield their movements, as their fighters are in positions, the began to attack the Russian all at once. Silver led his team into position at a checkpoint leads into the town, hiding behind the bushes on one side of the road, he coordinates his teammates to move into an angle, from which they can overwhelm the Russian defenders in the quickest time possible to have more spare time in their hands to set up defenses. "Slingshot, this is Ghost Leader we're position and are ready to go over."; "Slingshot here, good copy, our men are in position. All units on this channel, weapons free! Repeat weapons free!" Just then at that moment, all NAPA teams launches their assault along with Silver and his teammates, they threw smoke grenades to blind the Russian of their movements, while then Metal Sonic and Silver flank around the Russian defenses and finish them off. The Russians were soon overwhelmed, their defense positions were taken by the partisans, then NAPA forces in the AO starts to move in with whatever troops they have and set up a defensive perimeter. "Slingshot, this is Sokol 5, we've taken the Russian's positions. Setting up the defenses now."; "Da (Yes), good to hear comrades, i need you to patch me through to the ZDF Commander of the base now. Over." ; "Slingshot, this is Ghost Leader we can patch you through to the ZDF Commander stand by over."

Metal Sonic quickly dial the radio of their commander to the frequency of the ZDF Commander's, then commander Petrenko can call the ZDF force in the base. "Commander Lebejov of the ZDF Katyusha Armored Battalion come in over."; "This is Colonel Lebejov we hear you over. Who is this?"; "THis is Commander Petrenko of the NAPA partisan movement. We've commandeered the Russian defensive position around you. We would like to invite you to join our cause and fight the Russian occupiers."; "That's the best thing my ears have heard in a long time. Of course we will. What's the plan commander?"; "My men needs you to move your entire battalion along the east road to our hideouts inside the safe zone under our control. Bring along as much supplies as possible we will need them for future operations."

As the ZDF Armored Battalion began to pack up and leave their base, the partisan dig in around the town itself to stave off the Russian counter attack, they plant landmines everywhere on the ground in front of their positions, they lock and load their emplacement weapons and hang in for the long fight ahead. Silver and his teammates were done with planting mines around their sandbags position, Silver duck behind the sandbags with Leeta and Lyco by his sides, Shard and Metal Sonic were manning the HMG next to them and Larry Lynx was keeping an ever watchful eye on the Russian's movements with his sniper rifle. "Slingshot this is Sokol 1! We have enemy contacts! infantries and APCs, they're coming in hot at us over!"; "Understood Sokol, hold them back but do not risk your own lives for nothing. We need as many as possible!" As the battle commenced, the Russian roll in their BMPs and infantry support assets, followed by motorized assaults, the partisan open fire on their enemies, cutting down the Russian troops who were caught off-guard. As the BMPs rolls up ahead, they were hit by landmines on the ground, the Russian saw their vehicles turned into smoldering wrecks in seconds decided to stay low and let their engineers to take out the minefields, but as the engineers came to the minefields, they too were pinned down.

Silver's team had the hardest hitting, they tried to hold back endless waves of Russian assaults by landmines, HMG fire and sniper threats but the Russian just keep advancing with the their vehicles. "Slingshot, this Ghost leader, how's the evacuation going?"; "Slingshot here, the evacuation is halfway through now. Keep up the good work."; "We can't hold the line on the first phase line, moving back to the second phase line inside the town now over!" Silver then signals for his team to throw down smoke grenades and fall back to the town, fearing that the Russian might be able to exploit the breach in the peritmeter, NAPA forces quickly fall back to the town and set up another defensive line. "Slingshot, this is Badger Team, we've spotted a pair of enemy MI-28, they're coming in hot to destroy the tanks over!"; "I hear you Badger, hold on. Impaler Team, this is Slingshot, enemy gunships are coming in to destroy the tanks, take them down, out."; "We copy Slingshot, got the birds in our sights. Commencing interdiction now."

From the forest on the edge of town, a pair of heat seaking AA missiles shoot up and chase down the MI-28. The pilots and their gunners were caught off guard, unable to deploy their chaffs and counter measures quick enough, they were shot down by the missiles, their choppers crash down on to the ground burning. The Russian then started to call in their heavy artilleries, from afar, shots of howitzers roared thunderously, the shells rain down on the town hard, reducing buildings to rubbles, flattening houses, cratering the roads, one shell struck a house where Silver and his teammates were hiding, the roof came down on them, burying Silver's legs underneath the rubbles. The hedgehog screams in agony. "Hold on Silver! I got you!" Leeta ran to Silver and tries to dig ou the rubble with her sister Lyco, "Don't worry! You're gonna be alright just stay still." Leeta tries to comfort Silver and ease his pain, she holds his hand tight as the wolf pack twins dig out the rubble and pull him out of the rubble. "Oh god, this is bad. This is really bad. Your leg is broken, i'm gonna try to remedy it until we can get you a doctor!" Silver was struggling to stay alive for Leeta's sake, and in turn she was working hard to heal his wound. Meanwhile on the outside of town, the Russian were pushing hard, despite NAPA's best effort, they knew they would have to retreat sooner or later. "Slingshot...we can't hold them back any longer...we have to retreat or we will be annihilated!"; "Affirmative, Slingshot to all units on this channel, fall back to our lines now! I repeat fallback! I'm ordering a full mortar strike on the town now!"

As Silver's team recovers from their minor setback, they quickly get on a technical truck, Silver was being carried by Leeta Lyco while his three other teammates were providing cover, as they drive away from the town with all that's left of NAPA mechanized Task Force and the ZDF's Armored Battalion, Shard saw mortar shells rain down on the town, at first he thought they were just standard mortar shells, but it soon turns out that they were actually Willy Pete shells, the chemicals incinerates the town and Russians that were inside it, damaging vehicles and disfiguring others. The terror that these unexpected and unconventional weapons would scarred him for life, the sounds, the screams, the agony of anyone who was unlucky enough to be caught by WP shells would haunt him in his dreams. But for now, his team has accomplished another mission but with their team leader now has a broken leg. Back at the camp, NAPA partisan were counting their losses, the tanks they have gathered, the help they have received. The situation was changing to NAPA's favor and soon they will take the offensive and drive out the Russian occupiers. But the question is: Where will they strike?


	11. Chapter 10: Blitzkriege

Chapter 10: Blitzkriege

The Town of Yazhylynskoye, Zagoria

October 1st, 7:40

Grid: 09877326578

Weather: Clear

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 Tier-1 team callsign Ghost, 1 armored assault battlegroup

+Independent: 1 Mechanized Division

+OPFOR: 2 Mechanized Battalion, 1 Infantry Division

Harvey's briefing: This is it! We've made the Russian's staying here hell and now we have enough force to drive them out of Zagoria for good. Right now most of the Russian have been gathered at the beach to stop an invasion force of the Coalition, this gives us an opportunity to attack their main field Headquarter at the town of Yazhylynskoye, we need to take that command and control trailer. That will throw the Russian into total disarray, the invasion will be saved a lot of lives if we do this right. If this goes smoothly, the Russian will be screaming for the removal of the current regime and that's our chance to get Red Ghost in Russia. To do this you'll lead the assault, you'll take command of a T64 platoon and lead the way, you'll be supported by air support, artillery and any auxiliaries that we have.

Petrenko's Intel: We managed to put together a formidable and sizeable force to take on an entire Russian Mechanized division, some of our men have manage to captured an enemy airfield. We got some air support for you and that includes gunships and tactical bombers. They are only available in limited numbers so use them wisely.

* * *

The day of liberation has finally come, while the Russian were reeling from the destruction of most of their forces in Eurish and in Zagoria, their enemies have bided their times well, their armies and organized, well trained, equipped and are well supplied. With a host of formidable foes like this, Russia can not win a war where they are being attacked on all sides. Out at sea, the Kingdom of Acorn's Navy has sent their 4th fleet to conduct an amphibious assault operation on the Russian forces in Zagoria, on the amphibious assault ship, Sally Acorn and her team were preparing for the worst possible moments that they might come across. Tails was promoted to Seargent, making him the team's second in command. He was putting on his uniforms, battle armor and loaded his rifle. "So what's the plan today Sal?" Bunnie Rabbot asked her friend and leader, "The plan is that we'll hit the beach with the German's 7th Panzergrenadier Division and clear the beach. We'll then move to the town of Yazhylynskoye and take it that will disrupt the Russian's ability to coordinate their ground forces." Sally explained the combat plan in detail and points at the map at the same time. Just then a person came down to the hanger, it was General Amadeus Prower, the father of Sgt Prower. "Sir?"

The team along with other troops and technicians in the hanger stop what they were doing in all of a sudden and salute the General. "At ease men. May I have a word in private with Sgt Miles?" Tails then step out of the bunch and walk with his father for a moment. "Miles you know that your mother and I are really worried about you. You sure that you want to go?" Amadeus look at his son's eyes, he can tell that his son's symptons of PTSD has subsided somewhat, but there was still the Thousand Yard Stare in the two tailed fox's eyes. "It's the only place I feel like I can do something. A place where I know my role. You don't have to worried about me, I can take care of myself out there. But thanks for your concern dad. Tell mom that I love her too." Tails gave his father a hug and pat him on the back, "But what if I loose you? You're the only son I've ever had." Tails was silent when he heard that question. But he was willing to take the risk for his friends so their families back home won't go through the same thing like him. "That's the risk I have to take dad." Tails then turn around to come back to his friends, they were loading up on the amphibious AAVP. Amadeus went back to his command and control room, wiping off the tears on from his eyes when he saw himself unable to bring his son back home safely and put some other kid in his place. But his son is out there, right now and he must deal with it. The best thing that he can do right now is to make sure that his son is protected by the best fighting formation he can muster.

When all the troops are loaded onto their transports, the hanger of their ship opens the water came in and fill up the hanger for the landing force to be deployed. "Men, this is a moment of truth, we've been waiting for this moment for a long time. For months, the Russians have been butchering the people of Zagoria, they torned the country apart and buried the population under their hatreds. They flood these people's villages with rivers of blood, they submit the peasants at gunpoints. But today, we'll see how will they fair against those who are as good as them. God speed all of you." When the greenlight in the hanger turns on, the landing force spring out like a coil spring set free from force that holds it back. From the allied fleet, hovercrafts and amphibious vehicles brought man and machine ashore. Above them, cruise missiles and aircrafts flies overhead and seek out their targets in land. The cruise missiles destroy bunkers and fortifications, while then bombers went for the armor targets. As the Russian defenses began to crumble at the wake of the massive attacks, when the troops of the coalition landed onto shores, the German Leopard 2 tanks and Panzergrenadiers began to storm the Russian's position, slowly driving them back, moving with them was Sally's squad who were leading the way deep behind enemy lines. But while the Russian's draftees were dying at the beach and nearby villages, two miles away from the beach to the east, the Russian's elite armored forces were kept behind to ensure that they can still deploy an effective counter attack, little do they know however is that NAPA partisan have set them up for a surprise assault.

From within the forest, comes the tanks of the partisan, T64s of the latest types, armed with the deadliest weapons and led by the finest commander there is, the NAPA forces that laid in wait in the forest begins their assault on the Russian garrison. "Tiger Actual to all callsigns on this net, give me a SITREP, over." Silver begins to check in on his comrades via the tank's radio, "Tiger 2-2 here we are armed and ready. Just give us a target over."; "This is Werewolf, my men are in position near the town, once you give the word we'll take it by force!"; "Vulture 6 here, we are loaded and ready for bears save some action for us over." Silver knows that his troops are all ready, he gave the order to strike like a snake from the grass, the armored force under his command roll out and strike hard at the Russian's T90 tanks. "T90s at 12 o' clock low!" Silver called out target to Shard who then operates the tank's turret auto loading system, "SABOT up! Target's in my sight!"; "Gunner send!"; "On the way!" Shard fires the SABOT at the Russian's better tank, which damaged the T90 but not a knockout blow, the T90 swings its turret around to greet the partisan, but suddenly it was blow up by another T64. "Good shot comrades! Now let's see if their tanks can run with vodka!" The armored forces of NAPA begin to surround the town of Yazhynlyskoye, the Russian decided to hastily deploy their elite T90 battalion to fight back the attackers. "Here they comes! Pick your targets and take them out with your partner. Remember, aim the treads, turrets and the rear of the tank." Silver reminded his troops as they roll in and face the T90s head on, Silver and his tank quickly saw a T90 that was about to fire its 125mm main gun at them, he made a split second decision to save his tank. "T90 at 11 o' clock. Pop smoke!" Shard heeded Silver's command and launch a smoke screen to blind the enemy tank, who fired a shot at them, the round miss and hit an allied tank instead, destroying its reactive armor. "Tiger 2-2 report!"; "Tiger 2-2 here, we are hit but still operational, over!"; "Alright 2-2 let's hit them back!" Shard fires a shot at the T90 and it temporaly knockout the crew inside, Tiger 2-2 follow up with another and it destroys the T90's damaged hull.

"Keep pushing! We need to take this town right now!" Silver calls out to his troops who were encircling the town, their tanks and IFVs were engaging the Russian's vehicles, their infantries were clearing the town, one house after another, room to room, building after building, one Russian invader at a time. As the final Russian soldier fell to the ground and limb, NAPA partisan hung their flag high at the town square declaring their victory over the Russian invader. "This is Slingshot to all combat units! We're receiving reports from all over the country that the Russian and disengaging and are either surrendering and ask for safe passage back into Russia! Good job men! We've won!" The troops cheers at the news of victory, they flowers into the air and holds their hats high, bottles of whine were brought out for celebration, for NAPA their mission is finally accomplished, their invaders have laid down their arms and capitulated. But for Silver and his team, this victory was just one step closer to Red Ghost, the true force behind the conflict. Silver and his team took their time to search around the town for important documents, military orders and other valuable piece of intel, eventually when they came to a small saloon in the town, they came across the corpse of a high ranking Russian officer, he was a Colonel in the Russian army, but there was something else that he brought on him, "Let's see what's underneath his uniform." When Leeta strip his uniform off, they saw tattoo of the Grim Reaper holding the sickle of death looming over the Kremlin. "This must be one of Red Ghost's operative in the region. Look at this, folder for his orders in the field." Leeta opens the folder for field orders to the Colonel and his men, her friends were all looking at the folder and they were all amazed at how much Red Ghost have done to prepare the debacle that they have exacted on the Russian.

"Vastizov ordered his sleeper cells to leak intel for us so we can beat up the Russian. Now that the Russian have been humiliated in their own backyard, Uri and his men finally have the opportunity to overthrow the Russian Goverment. But what are they planning to do after that?" Silver pondered over the information his team recovered. But his answer will come soon enough. Miles away from the battlefield, in Moscow, at a skyscrapper building built for high ranking military official, the new HQ for the Central Military Command Bureau, there was a man, in his late 60s, he was wearring the uniform of a chairman of the KGB, complete with the cap and badge, he was wearring a pair of spectacles to hide his eyes from everyone else. Alone in his office, he sits and wait for a phone call. Then his phone rang, he pick it up and answer it. "Da (Yes), Chairman Uri Vastizov here. Really Tovarish (Comrade)? Good our time has come at last. Now that the army has been beaten in Eurish and in Zagoria, President Zyuganov won't stand a chance when we launch Operation Red Terror. What? Our guest's interventions would cause the downfall of the operation? Nyet (no) that won't happen, i just need you to hold them back long enough to get the operation going smoothly. That is all Comrade Dimitri." Uri put his phone down then dial the number of one of his colleague for a final preparation of Operation Red Terror. "General Galinsky? It's me, comrade Vastizov, listen, i want you to put a detatchment of your troops at the HQ of the Ministry of Information and Propaganda as soon as possible. Tell the men to bring along armor and Spetsnaz (Special Forces) to take the building as soon as i give the go. Thank you Galinsky, and good luck to you, too. Comrade Galinsky." Vastizov put his phone down and took a deep breath. Looking out of his window, he saw Moscow at night, it was beautiful, like a gem glowing in a dark forest, for Uri, he has been in love with the city for as long as he can remember. But when he remembers the days of the Soviet Union, he felt disgusted at this city.

When he was younger, he was enthusiastic, he was an idealist. Naive and gullible, he was willing to devote his life to the Communist ideals, but as he grows up, he soon learn an ugly reality. The so called "Perfect and equal" society of the Soviet Union was no better than the West's so called "Oppressive" Society, or in some cases even worse. He remembers how he was able to get into the most privildged university of Moscow and then to other high ranking positions in the military and finally, the KGB itself, he was borned into the right social-political background. With the right background he can get into anywhere because his family was favored by the party. To him, this was corruption of the highest level, only anybody who worship the party can live the high life but everyone else are left out of the social safety net. To make matters worse, Uri was forced to do things he felt that only a sadist would do, he was forced to torture, kidnap, execute or even deprive his country men of their citizenship if they speak out against the party. He was disenchanted with the Utopia dream of Communism, when the Soviet Union collapsed, he was being throwed around along with his comrades like tools so that the incompetent fools and cowards in power can stay in power. But now he is back with a vengeance and he was going to make sure that it's going to be like how he wanted. No matter what.


	12. Chapter 11: Red October

Chapter 11: Red October

Moscow, Russian Federation

October 25th, 9:20

Weather: Snowy, cloudy

Force Estimation:

+BLUFOR: 1 Tier-1 Team callsign Ghost

+OPFOR: 1 Special Operation Brigade, 1 Armored Division

Harvey's Briefing: Welcome to Moscow gentlemen. This is the most heavily guarded city for us and also one of the most turmoil city in the entire Russian Federation. The cabinet and administration of President Zyuganov is taking a heavy beating, the military is suffering desertion on all branches and they are holding onto a small strip of land stretch from St Petersburg and Moscow. The people of Moscow are rioting out on the streets and President Zyuganov is responding to it the only way he knows how, sending tanks and any troops he has left to squash the rebellions. The situation is degenerating into an all out civil war, Zyuganov is holding onto the Kremlin and the presidential palace, but anywhere else is all out fighting. According to our intel gathered on Red Ghost, today is going to be the day they launch their Coup. This is our chance to grab Red Ghost's high ranking personel, we'll take them while they are launching their coup. You'll be drop off on the roof of the Central Military Command Bureau HQ building, then you will have to fight your way down to the lower floor to grab Red Ghost's top dog, Uri Vastizov himself. As for the others either take them with you or terminate them on site with extreme prejudice. Good luck and god speed.

Chuck's Armory Update: Take a seeker mine with you to take out enemies with riot shields. That thing can roll around on its own and seek out its target then launch a trio of napalm rockets on top of the target's head.

* * *

Moscow is currently under a total lockdown, the streets are filled with angry mob and military patrols, each tries to assert itself over the other, taking advantage of the situation, Red Ghost decided to throw in all of their assets into the play. At the headquarter of the Ministry of Information and Propaganda, military forces loyal to Red Ghost decided to launch a surprise attack on the building and its security force, the T90 tank outside of the building suddenly rolls in and block the entrance of the building then rotates its barrel at the road heading toward the building, on top of the Ministry building an MI 24 flew around the windows of the building's second floor then open fire its chain gun, killing anybody inside, then the Hind hovers on the roof for the Spetsnaz troops to rappel down the gunship and storm the building. "Take control of the media control room and switch on the PA system of the city! Move it!" The Spetsnaz quickly moves down to the lower floor and make short work of anybody who are alive in there, even security troops who are also their country men, the Spetsnaz clean up the second floor's media control room in no time at all. All the workers and soldiers who were inside the office were wipe out. It was at that moment that the Red Ghost's lieutenants came into the room and begins their part of the plan. They switch on the PA systems across Moscow, then they cut off the Kremlin's emergency phone line and all other communication network, leaving the Kremlin and Red Square completely isolated. "It's done. You may begin your broadcast."

The Lieutenant moves into to make his speech to the Russian people. "Brave comrades of Mother Russia! For generations we have defended our home land from countless invaders, we have gave our motherland our blood, our strength, our youth, all for her protection! Once, Lenin promised to us that when we have overthrowned the Tsarist Regime and their lackies, we would have freedom, equality and prosperity! But none of that have ever come! We were locked in bitter struggles, paid by the blood of countless young men, generations were wasted to keep his precious Communist Part in power. Then came Stalin and his lapdogs, the generations of Communists in the year that follow didn't do any better but to make our lives worse. Our country was stagnant, frozen like ice. When the USSR collapsed we thought we would finally have what we have always wanted. But it's once again denied by our current leader, President Zyuganov, he sought to bring us back to the age of Imperialism, Communism and totalitarianism that Stalin enjoys. His incompetence is what brought us shame and defeat in Zagoria. Another generation of young men wasted for his ego! But we will have our revenge! We will rise up, we will fight and we will oust him from his office! We will be free or die trying!"

Heeding his words, the crowds of Moscow begin to march toward Red Square, holding banners, slogans high, calling for the abdication of president Zyuganov, they march toward the Kremlin, along the way, the army was dispatched to stop them, but the soldier's morale was on a wain, they refused to fire their guns at the civilians like the other days, they instead simply stand still and let the people marches through. Desperate to hold onto power, Zyuganov decided to broadcast the national anthem of the USSR on loudspeakers to raise the morale of the troops.

_Soiuz nerushimyj respublik svobodnykh  
Splotila naveki Velikaia Rus.  
Da zdravstvuet sozdannyj volej narodov  
Edinyj, moguchij Sovetskij Soiuz!_

_Slavsia, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoe,_  
_Druzhby narodov nadiozhnyj oplot!_  
_Partiia Lenina - sila narodnaia_  
_Nas k torzhestvu kommunizma vediot!_

_Skvoz grozy siialo nam solntse svobody,  
I Lenin velikij nam put ozaril,  
Na pravoe delo on podnial narody,  
Na trud i na podvigi nas vdokhnovil._

_Slavsia, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoe,_  
_Druzhby narodov nadiozhnyj oplot!_  
_Partiia Lenina - sila narodnaia_  
_Nas k torzhestvu kommunizma vediot!_

_V pobede bessmertnykh idej kommunizma_  
_My vidim griadushchee nashej strany_  
_I Krasnomu znameni slavnoj Otchizny_  
_My budem vsegda bezzavetno verny!_

_Slavsia, Otechestvo nashe svobodnoe,_  
_Druzhby narodov nadiozhnyj oplot!_  
_Partiia Lenina - sila narodnaia_  
_Nas k torzhestvu kommunizma vediot!_

(Unbreakable Union of freeborn Republics,

Great Russia has welded forever to stand.  
Created in struggle by will of the people,  
United and mighty, our Soviet land!

Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,  
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.  
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,  
To Communism's triumph lead us on!

Through tempests the sunrays of freedom have cheered us,  
Along the new path where great Lenin did lead.  
To a righteous cause he raised up the peoples,  
Inspired them to labour and valourous deed.

Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,  
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.  
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,  
To Communism's triumph lead us on!

In the victory of Communism's immortal ideal,  
We see the future of our dear land.  
And to her fluttering scarlet banner,  
Selflessly true we always shall stand!

Sing to the Motherland, home of the free,  
Bulwark of peoples in brotherhood strong.  
O Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,  
To Communism's triumph lead us on!)

But instead of raising the morale of the troops, he instead agitate the crowds to continues their march, holding high their slogans and shouting anti Zyuganov, anti Communism sentiments. They show neither fear nor dread to Zyuganov but they display courage, hatred, a strong conviction for freedom. The freedom that was denied from them for so many generations. As the crowd draws closer and closer to Red Square, on the sky of Moscow, an Mi-24W Hind gunship flying to the skyscrapper building of the Red Ghost, the pilot was a coyote, Pierre Depardieu, his passengers were members of the Knothole Force. "Ghost rider to Godfather come in, over."; "Godfather here, reading you loud and clear, over."; "Godfather, I'm approaching target right now, ETA is 2 minutes. What's the situation down there over?"; "Chaotic, Red Ghost just instigated an uprising by the populace, Zyuganov isn't going to get away from this one. Hostile forces at the target building are preparing for your arrival now over."; "Understood Godfather. Hey guys listen up, i'm going to light up the bad guys at the target building then you'll get in there and take the package. In and out."

In the passanger cabin, Knothole Force members were preparing their weapons for their possible final showdown, Silver loaded his SCAR-H assault rifle and check his grenade launcher attatchment, he gave Leeta a slight glance, he saw her preparing her MP5N with a Red Dog Sight. He smiles at her when she was adjusting her hair and put on her helmet. The white hedgehog started to write something new on his to-do list and reminds him to stay alive for Leeta. "Incoming SAM! Evade!" Pierre dodges an anti air missile that was flying at him, he saw dozens of infantries on the rooftop of the skyscrapper building, "Oh merde (Shit)! The Russians are dug in and they're going to let us drop on the roof, looks like i'll need to clear out the roof first." Pierre dives into the fray and fire his rockets at the roof, blowing up the Russians to kingdom come, then he circles around and unleash a hail of bullets at the Russian Spetsnaz who were on the roof, at the same time, he can still retain his cool to sing La Marseillaise.

"Allons enfants de la patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé! Contre nous de la tyrannieL'etendard sanglant est levé! (bis)Entendez-vous dans les campagnes,Mugir ces féroces soldats?Ils viennent jusque dans nos brasÉgorger nos fils, nos compagnes! Refrain Aux armes, citoyens! Formez vos bataillons! Marchons! Marchons! Qu'un sang impur Abreuve nos sillons! Amour sacré de la patrie, Conduis, soutiens nos bras vengeurs! Liberté, Liberté cherie, Combats avec tes défenseurs! (bis) Sous nos drapeaux, que la victoire Accoure à tes mâles accents! Que tes ennemis expirants Voient ton triomphe et notre gloire! Refrain Nous entrerons dans la carrière Quand nos aînés n'y seront plus; Nous y trouverons leur poussière Et la trace de leurs vertus. Bien moins jaloux de leur survivre Que de partager leur cercueil, Nous aurons le sublime orgueil De les venger ou de les suivre! Refrain"

( Arise children of the fatherland! The day of glory has arrived! Against us tyranny's Bloody standard is raised Listen to the sound in the fields The howling of these fearsome soldiers They are coming into our midst To cut the throats of your sons and consorts _To arms citizens Form your battalions __March, march __Let impure blood __Water our furrows _What do they want this horde of slaves Of traitors and conspiratorial kings? For whom these vile chains These long-prepared irons? Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage What methods must be taken? It is us they dare plan To return to the old slavery! What! These foreign cohorts! They would make laws in our courts! What! These mercenary phalanxes Would cut down our warrior sons Good Lord! By chained hands Our brow would yield under the yoke The vile despots would have themselves be The masters of destiny Tremble, tyrants and traitors The shame of all good men Tremble! Your parricidal schemes Will receive their just reward Against you we are all soldiers If they fall, our young heros France will bear new ones Ready to join the fight against you Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors Bear or hold back your blows Spare these sad victims That they regret taking up arms against us But not these bloody despots These accomplices of Bouillé All these tigers who pitilessly Ripped out their mothers' wombs We too shall enlist When our elders' time has come To add to the list of deeds Inscribed upon their tombs We are much less jealous of surviving them Than of sharing their coffins We shall have the sublime pride Of avenging or joining them Drive on sacred patriotism Support our avenging arms Liberty, cherished liberty Join the struggle with your defenders Under our flags, let victory Hurry to your manly tone So that in death your enemies See your triumph and our glory!)

He lay waste to all hostile troops on the roof, but then a convoy of BMP-2 and two BTR-90 ran to the front entrance of the building, Pierre flew around then fired ATGM missiles at the vehicles, neutralizing the convoy almost immediately. "Ghost Rider this is Godfather we got a situation development."; "What is it Godfather?"; "Radio chatter indicates that Red Ghost is moving to the metro underneath the building your new LZ is the street in front of the building."; "Copy that Godfather. Going there now." Pierre then hovers his Mi-24W on the streets in front of the building, Knothole Force members quickly fast rope down the gunship and move into the building's front entrance. "Clear the ground floor! Secure the package as soon as you see him!" Silver and his team move into the main hall of the building where, Spetsnaz, VDV and Red Ghost elite troops were waiting for them, the enemy fires back at them, the machine gunners keep the team pinned down behind covers, while then Riot Shielders were coming in line follow by their other comrades. "Damn it! Deploy Seeker Mine!" Metal Sonic roll out the Seeker Mine then automatically roll over to the enemies, it then fires three napalm missiles on top of their heads. The missiles burn its targets, spreading fear and panic among their ranks, Silver then threw up a Flashbang, it blinded them with a flash and disorient them with a bang. "Move up! Go go go!" Silver and his team moves up and assault the enemies, it was at that moment that Uri Vastizov was running down to the metro underneath the building, his men were accompanying him. "There he is! He's going for the Metro! Stop him!" Leeta spotted Uri who was being shielded by his men. The Spetsnaz Alpha Group Operators were conducting a tactical retreat while Knothole Force was hunting them down through out the ground floor, the team push their way up an escelator and through a cafe.

"How is the situation at Red Square?" Uri asked one of his lieutenant. "Everything is proceeding as plan. The people are going into the Kremlin as we speak and our men have taken control of other goverment institutions in the downtown area. President Zyuganov and his cabinet have nowhere to run."; "Good we just need to play hide and seek with our friends just a little longer and it should be just like how we have planned." Uri and his lieutenant ran to the command and control room in the more secretive part of the Metro, there Uri was monitoring the situation at Red Square using CCTV cameras. The people of Russia were storming through the barricades of the army, the troops there were given orders not to fire on the masses so as to avoid instigating an all out civil war, they simply stand and watch as the people marches into the Kremlin and take President Zyuganov down for all the things he did to woo his ego. "Finally, after so many decades of lies and hypercrites, we've finally achieved what we always wanted. Freedom." Uri began to shed tears at the sight of his grand plan finally coming together after more than 25 years of careful planning, waiting for a moment to strike. He couldn't have been more proud of his men who were loyal to him from the beginning to the end. They follow him not out of fear but because he trusted them and treat them like his own son, and in turn they would gladly follow him to the darkes canyons. At that moment, the Knothole Force was done fighting through the Spetsnaz and VDV troops at the station, they came down to the service tunnel and finally, they were at the doors of the C2 room. They stacked up on the two doors, Silver signals his teammates to plant explosive charges on the door, and at the exact moment of his signal, they blew up the doors and hit the room, they gunned down all of the Russians who were in the room, leaving only Uri Vastizov who was sitting at his desk waiting for them to take him in.

"I've conceited the game, you will take me to your commander. And don't try to smug your victory over me. I didn't want to win, I just want revenge." Uri confidently let himself tied up by Leet Wolf, then they led him out of the building into their Hind. Along the way, there was no resistance from any of his men or the other Russian troops. They all simply stand aside and let them leave, even the armored forces decided to stand down and let it all come to a close. "Why are they letting us go? Aren't they suppose to stop us and protect you?" Silver asked Uri who was walking along side Silver. "Nyet (no). Their mission isn't my protection. It's just buying time for the masses to win their struggle. I'm merely a tool, a tool for the masses to use. And these men, their mission is completed, they can now go home, the Red Ghosts is gone, self destructed right after the people have taken controlled of the Kremlin. That is our goal, destroy the remnants of the USSR then disappear from existence for good. So that our shadow would not obstruct the people's path to a new future." They flew him out of Moscow and back to the airfield of Smolensk, where Harvey Who, an old acquaintance of Uri was waiting for them. As the Hind landed, the owl saw Uri steps out of the bird, flanked by Knothole Force, "Tovarich Harvey Who. (Comrade Harvey Who) It's been a long time. I thought that we would never see each other again." Uri wasn't afraid, he wasn't scared of Harvey, in fact Uri was glad to see Harvey again, he gave Harvey a smile without malice. "What makes you think I would give you mercy behind bars?" Harvey was sterned at Uri and the owl was worried that the witty old fox Vastizov could have a trick up his sleeve.

"Mercy? (Chuckle) You must be mistaking Harvey. I don't need mercy at all. I have no need for prison sentences. I just want you to give me one thing. One very simple thing, death, peace, freedom from life." Uri gave Harvey his Makarov pistol, and make gestures to Harvey in a motion of shoot Uri in the head. "We both know what we have done in our younger days. You were escaping from the USSR along with the documents of Soviet Double Agents in your country. I was supposed to stop you. But in the midst of our crossfire, the woman we both love, Natasha Ludovka, she died because of two men fighting for the ego of their countries. And I was the one who fire the shot. So now, you've had your chance for revenge. So do it. Kill me now and be done with it." Harvey was aiming the Makarov at Uri's head but the owl's confident seems to have faded away, he doesn't have the killer look in his eyes anymore. He hesitated, he didn't want to pull the trigger. "Yes, you need it, not the killing. Not the payback, but the peace, it's what you need." Finally after pulling himself together, Harvey forced his fingers to pull the trigger and kill Uri on the spot. The KGB chairman was dead, along with his legacy, it was neither good nor evil, but it was a long path of redemption. Perhaps only god can judge him.

Two days later back in New Mobotropolis, Harvey was sitting on a bench in the park, the cold air of autumn was leaving the kingdom, winter was coming soon, he thought that he was going to be alone the whole day, but then, an old friend came to him, the king himself, Elias Acorn. "So, it's over right? Red Ghost is nothing but dust in the wind now." Elias sits down next to Harvey, "No Elias, in fact i think that this is the beginning. At first I thought that we hunt Red Ghost for what they did to us. The bombing of the border checkpoint, the manipulation of the war in Zagoria. But now I'm not so sure of what we were doing anymore. I thought i know what i'm going to do to Uri when i meet him. But now, I just don't know what did i just do anymore. Everything i did, was for Uri to have his peace. I did him a favor and that's the only thing i know."; "Do you think that we won't have any enemy anymore? The world's greatest Nuclear superpower is gone, reduce to ashes by its own disgruntled people. Do you think we will finally have peace?" Elias asked Harvey for wisdom, the old owl look at his reflection in the pond and he knows that the answer to Elias's question was certantly a "No". "I wouldn't say that if i were you. One enemy falls, another will rise to replace them. I don't think that we will have peace at all. This age is an age of international Terrorism, border conflicts fueled by Nationalism, manipulative information. Knothole Force would still be needed to protect this kingdom from any and all enemies around the world."


End file.
